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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25292977">The Wolf, The Angel and The Blue Box</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Grey_Angel/pseuds/The_Grey_Angel'>The_Grey_Angel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Feels, Anxiety Attacks, Canon-Typical Violence, Genderfluid Character, Inconsistent chapter lenght, Near Death Experiences, Not Canon Compliant, POV First Person, Panic Attacks, Self-Insert, Swearing, Temporary Amnesia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:54:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>32,944</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25292977</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Grey_Angel/pseuds/The_Grey_Angel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Self-insert cause I wanna smooch the Doctor. I also want David Tennant to call me "Angel". Warning: I can't promise this is gonna be a compelling narrative.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack Harkness &amp; Original Character(s), Jack Harkness &amp; Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith/Rose Tyler, Rose Tyler &amp; Original Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who) &amp; Jack Harkness, The Doctor (Doctor Who) &amp; Original Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who) &amp; Rose Tyler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. First Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>My eyes shot open, and I punched the person shaking me awake, out of sheer reflex. Thankfully, he grabbed my arm before my fist could connect with his face. It took me less than a second to recognize him and his companion: the 9th Doctor and Rose Tyler. From the tv show. I was sitting on a bench in the console room, and he was crouched down in front of me. Rose was watching me warily from behind the console.</p><p>“Right, then.” The Doctor gently lowered my arm. “Who are you, and how did you get into my Tardis?”</p><p>“I-I don’t know.” I let out a sob when it hit me. “Oh my gods, I can’t remember.” </p><p>Rose took a step forward. “You can’t remember how you got here, or you can’t remember who you are?” There was a hint of disbelief in her voice, but I barely registered it.</p><p>“Either,” I sobbed again, a tear rolling down my cheek as the panic quickly settled in my chest. </p><p>“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay.” The Doctor gently took hold of my shoulders and turned me to face him. “Why don’t we start with the last thing you remember? Can you do that for me?” I sniffled and nodded in response. “Good.” He gave me a reassuring smile. “Take your time.”</p><p>I quickly wiped my face with my sleeve, and I tried to focus. It took me a minute, but I managed to get a glimpse of a semblance of memory. “I… I was with the Doctor… N-not you, another Doctor, my Doctor.” I noticed the two of them exchanging glances. “I’m from a different universe,” I explained as the information somewhat solidified in my mind. “I was travelling with the Doctor from my universe, and we--” I shook my head. “I can’t remember the rest…” I sniffled. “Sorry…”</p><p>“It’s alright.” Rose walked over to me and rubbed my shoulder in what I guessed was an attempt to comfort me. “That’s a good start.” </p><p>The Doctor, however, looked concerned. “You said another Doctor, not me. How do you know? Are you sure this is a different universe from where you were?” I just nodded. “How can you be sure??”</p><p>“Doctor, what’s wrong?” Rose gave him a confused look. </p><p>“It’s not possible to travel between universes. Not anymore.” He was staring at me with his arms crossed. </p><p>“I know cause you’re a tv show, where I’m from. That much, I know.” I wiped another tear with my sleeve. “That’s how I know you’re not my Doctor.”</p><p>“Right. And you don’t remember anything else? You’re sure?”</p><p>“Yes, I’m sure,” I huffed, not caring much for his tone and attitude. “I’d tell you if I did. I’m amnesiac, not brain-dead.”</p><p>I caught Rose’s smirk out of the corner of my eye. “What’s the tv show called?” she asked me.</p><p>“Doctor Who.” Rose burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my face. The Doctor just shook his head. “What are you gonna do with me, Doctor?”</p><p>“What do you mean, ‘do with you’?” he asked. </p><p>“I could be evil or something, I don’t even remember my own name.”</p><p>He leaned back against the console. “Do you feel evil?” I shook my head in reply. “Then I guess you can stay until you get your memories back.”</p><p>“Well, that was easy,“ Rose commented, then turned back to me. “I’m Rose Tyler, but I guess you already knew that.” She smiled. “What should we call you, then?”</p><p>“I don’t know…” That’s when the Tardis made some kind of chiming/beeping noise, and the words flashed behind my eyes, burning bright like the Sun. I blinked a couple of times and looked up at the others. I must have had a strange reaction because they were both looking at me funny.</p><p>“What was that?” Rose looked to the Doctor for an answer.</p><p>He had an unreadable expression on his face. “What did she show you?”</p><p>“Who?” Rose sounded concerned.</p><p>“The Tardis,” I replied for him. “I think. She showed me two words: Grey Angel.”</p><p>“Then, that’s what we’ll call you.” The Doctor stood up straight, clapping his hands once. “Where were we? Right, Rose,” he faced the console, turning his back to me. “Far future?”</p><p>“If that’s alright with everyone, I guess.” She looked between the two of us a few times.</p><p>“Sure. Why not?” I stood up on slightly shaky legs.</p><p>“I know exactly where to go. Hold on!” The Doctor flew the Tardis through the time vortex, and I held onto the bench even as the Tardis made her signature landing noises.</p><p>“Where are we? What’s out there?” Rose asked him. </p><p>The Doctor nodded towards the door, and she hesitantly walked out. The Doctor motioned for me to do the same, and I followed her outside. We went down a flight of steps as a large shutter in the wall descended to reveal a view of the Earth from orbit. The Doctor joined us. </p><p>“You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you’re going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. Five billion years in your future and this is the day-- Hold on.” He checked his wristwatch just as the Sun flared and turned red. “This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world.”</p><p>“Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty-nine. Followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite,” a computer voice announced as we walked down a corridor.</p><p>“So, when it says guests, does that mean people?” Rose asked. </p><p>“Depends what you mean by people,” he answered.</p><p>“I mean people. What do you mean?” she pressed him.</p><p>“Aliens.”</p><p>“Aren’t those the same thing?” I chimed in. </p><p>“Depends who you ask,” he answered. </p><p>“Okay, but what are they doing on board this spaceship? What’s it all for?” she pressed him.</p><p>“It’s not really a spaceship, more like an observation deck,” he explained. “The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn.” </p><p>He used his sonic screwdriver on a wall panel. A door opened to what was probably an observation gallery: A large area with a few display cases and a view of space to the front and above.</p><p>“What for?” I asked.</p><p>“Fun.” He led us inside. “Mind you,” he specified as we walked to the large window. “when I said the great and the good, what I mean is, the rich.”</p><p>“But, hold on.” She was looking at him in disbelief. “They did this once on Newsround Extra. The Sun expanding, that takes hundreds of years.”</p><p>“Millions,” he agreed, “but the planet’s now property of the National Trust. They’ve been keeping it preserved. See down there?” He pointed down at the Earth below. “Gravity satellites holding back the sun.”</p><p>“The planet looks the same as ever. I thought the continents shifted and things.”</p><p>“They did, and the Trust shifted them back. That’s a classic Earth. But now the money’s run out, nature takes over,” he explained.</p><p>“Uh,” I mumbled in acknowledgement, fascinated by the sight before me. The sheer scale of it all was making me feel so small.</p><p>“How long’s it got?” she asked him.</p><p>“About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted,” I was only half paying attention to the conversation. Still, I could tell the Doctor sounded a bit too cheery, considering what was coming.</p><p>“Is that why we’re here? I mean, is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?” She sounded hopeful now.</p><p>“I’m not saving it. Time’s up.” That made me snap out of my reverie and stare at him.</p><p>“But what about the people?” Rose asked.</p><p>“Yeah, what about them?” I added.</p><p>“It’s empty,” he reassured us. “They’re all gone. No one left.”</p><p>“Just me, then,” she said softly, and I took her hand. She squeezed mine in response.</p><p>“Who the hell are you?” A voice demanded, making the three of us turn to see who had spoken. It was a blue-skinned person with golden slit eyes, and they were striding towards us with purpose.</p><p>“Oh, that’s nice, thanks.” The Doctor’s sarcasm made me smile.</p><p>“But how did you get in?” the person asked, somewhat frantically. “This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They’re on their way any second now.” </p><p>“That’s me. I’m a guest. Look, I’ve got an invitation. Look.” He showed them a blank piece of paper. “There, you see? It’s fine, you see? The Doctor plus two. I’m the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler and the Grey Angel.” He motioned to Rose and me. “They’re my plus twos. Is that all right?” He put away the piece of paper.</p><p>“Well, obviously.” The steward (?) straightened up. “Apologies, et cetera.” The Doctor nodded in response. “If you’re on board, we’d better start. Enjoy.” They walked over to a podium.</p><p>“The paper’s slightly psychic,” the Doctor told us. “It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time.”</p><p>“Right! Psychic paper!” I exclaimed quietly.</p><p>“He’s blue.” Rose couldn’t stop staring at the steward.</p><p>“Yeah,” he nodded.</p><p>“Okay.” Her quickness to accept the situation impressed me. </p><p>“We have in attendance the Doctor, Rose Tyler and the Grey Angel,” the steward announced. “Thank you. All staff to their positions.” A lot of small blue people came out of a bunch of doors. “Hurry, now, thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have trees, namely, Jabe, Lute and Coffa.” A bark-skinned woman entered with two more significant male escorts.</p><p>“Sentient trees…” I mumbled incredulously. </p><p>“There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you,” the steward continued. “Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon.” Another blue alien, this time mostly head and body, sitting on a transport pod. The steward kept introducing guests, but I tuned most of it out as the trees approached us. </p><p>“The Gift of Peace. I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather.” Jabe, the tree woman, gave the Doctor a rooted twig in a small pot, and he handed it to me. I held it reverently. </p><p>“Thank you. Yes, gifts.” He was patting his pockets to find something to give in return. “Er, I give you in return air from my lungs.” He breathed gently on Jabe.</p><p>She seemed somewhat flustered. “How intimate.”</p><p>“There’s more where that came from.” Was he flirting? I exchanged glances with Rose.</p><p>“I bet there is.” Were they both flirting? The trees moved on to another guest. </p><p>“From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe,” the steward introduced. A large glass case barely made it through the doorway. It contained a giant humanoid head with straggly hair and squinting eyes.</p><p>Something about them was very familiar to me, and I felt like they were calling me to them. I tapped the Doctor’s shoulder and whispered: “I’m gonna go mingle.” He nodded, and I made my way to the Face of Boe. </p><p>“The Moxx of Balhoon!” the Doctor exclaimed as I was walking away.</p><p>I was about to speak when the steward announced the next guest. “And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multiforms,” I felt weirdly excluded from that statement. “consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O’Brien Dot Delta Seventeen.” A face in a piece of thin skin stretched in a rectangular frame was wheeled in by two men hidden in top-to-toe hospital whites, and I couldn’t help but stare.</p><p>“Oh, now, don’t stare.” Despite her lack of well, body, Cassandra was pretty good at commanding the room. “I know, I know it’s shocking, isn’t it? I’ve had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don’t look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me. Moisturize me.” One of her attendants used a pump spray on the skin. “Truly, I am the last Human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honour them and say goodbye.” As Cassandra spoke, Rose had walked around the back of her, probably to see how thin she was. “Oh, no tears, no tears. I’m sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband?” I hate to admit it, but that made me chuckle. “Oh, no. Oh, don’t laugh. I’ll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity.” An old jukebox box was wheeled in. “According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity’s greatest composers. Play on!”</p><p>One of the little attendants pressed a button and what it played was not what I thought of as classical music. However, it was dance music, and I couldn’t help but tap my foot to the beat.</p><p>“Refreshments will now be served. Earth Death in thirty minutes,” the steward told the room. </p><p>Rose ran out of the room in a bit of a panic. So much for quickly accepting the situation she was in. I went to follow her, but I saw that the Doctor was already on it. I thought he would be better suited to help her than me, so I turned back to the Face of Boe.</p><p>“First day?” he spoke directly inside my mind, bypassing my ears entirely. </p><p>“Yeah, how did you know?”</p><p>I felt him, definitely him, smile in my head. “You’re going to do great things, Angel.” I tilted my head at him in confusion. “Go. Enjoy the party.”</p><p>*****</p><p>After some time, the entire space station shook. A little bit later, both Rose and the Doctor came in, and I rushed over to them. </p><p>“What was that?” I asked him, slightly panicked. </p><p>“That wasn’t a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don’t feel like that. What do you think, Jabe?” he asked the tree as she came over. “Listened to the engines. They’ve pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?”</p><p>“It’s the sound of metal. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” she replied.</p><p>“Where’s the engine room?”</p><p>“I don’t know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your spouses.” she motioned to Rose and me.</p><p>“They’re not my spouses.”</p><p>“Partners?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Concubines?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“Prostitutes?”</p><p>I watched Jabe and the Doctor like they were a ping pong match, but Rose wasn’t having it. “Whatever we are, it must be invisible. Do you mind?” Definitely not having any of this weird flirting. “Tell you what, you two go and pollinate. I’m going to catch up with the family. Quick word with Michael Jackson.” And she walked away to talk to Cassandra. </p><p>“Don’t start a fight.” The Doctor turned to me. “Make sure she doesn’t start a fight.” He offered Jabe his arm as I went after Rose.</p><p>“And I want you home by midnight,” she called after the two of them as they left the room.</p><p>“Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes,” the computer helpfully announced. </p><p>I kept a bit of a distance as Rose approached the human trampoline cause fuck if I was touching this one with a ten-foot pole. <em> Whoa, where did that come from? </em></p><p>“Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die,” Cassandra said. “That’s where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there. Mummy and Daddy had a little house built into the side of the Los Angeles Crevice. I’d have such fun.”</p><p>“What happened to everyone else? The human race, where did it go?”</p><p>“They say mankind has touched every star in the sky.”</p><p>“So, you’re not the last human.”</p><p>“I am the last pure human. The others mingled.” She said it with such disdain it made my skin crawl. “Oh, they call themselves New humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans, even ‘Humanish', but you know what I call them? Mongrels.”</p><p>“Right. And you stayed behind.” At least Rose seemed like she was having a bit of fun with her line of questioning.</p><p>“I kept myself pure.”</p><p>“How many operations have you had?” Oh, she was making fun of the trampoline. <em> Got it. </em></p><p>“Seven hundred and eight. Next week, it’s seven hundred and nine. I’m having my blood bleached. Is that why you wanted a word? You could be flatter, Rose. You’ve got a little bit of a chin poking out.”</p><p>“I’d rather die,” she scoffed, and it made me smile for some reason.</p><p>“Honestly, it doesn’t hurt.</p><p>“No, I mean it. I would rather die. It’s better to die than live like you, a bitchy trampoline.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. </p><p>“Oh, well. What do you know?”</p><p>I almost jumped into the conversation to chew the bitch out, but Rose beat me to it. “I was born on that planet, and so was my mum, and so was my dad, and that makes me officially the last human being in this room, ‘cos you’re not human. You’ve had it all nipped and tucked and flattened till there’s nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin. You’re just skin, Cassandra. Lipstick and skin. Nice talking.” She walked out of the room, and I followed her out after flipping off Cassandra behind her back. </p><p>“Rose, wait!” I caught up to her. She spared me a glance. “Are you okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, she just… She’s such a bitch!”</p><p>Everything went dark.</p><p>******</p><p>“Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending,” the computer’s voice woke me up just in time to see the deadly glare begin to fill the room. </p><p>I noticed Rose was lying next to me, and we ran to the door.</p><p>“Let us out! Let us out!” we shouted, hammering on the door because it wouldn’t open.</p><p>“Sun filter descending.”</p><p>“Let us out! Let us out!” Rose yelled.</p><p>“Let us out!” I echoed, tears of sheer panic rolling down my cheeks.</p><p>“Sun filter descending.”</p><p>“Anyone in there?” the Doctor called from the other side of the door.</p><p>“Let us out!” we screamed. </p><p>There was a muffled response from the other side. </p><p>“Open the door!” Rose yelled at him.</p><p>“Hold on. Give us two ticks.” </p><p>The scorching rays reached the top of the door as the computer kept helpfully reminding us of our impending doom. “Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending.” And then: “Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising.” But soon, it was back to doom. “Sun filter descending.”</p><p>“Just what we need. The computer’s getting clever.” </p><p>I would have been impressed with his ability to stay calm under pressure if I hadn’t been busy lamenting the fact that I wouldn’t even get the chance to have my whole life flash before my eyes as I got fried extra crispy. </p><p>“Stop mucking about!” Rose shouted.</p><p>I just sank to the floor, crying, and I blocked everything else out. All I could hear was the computer saying I was going to die without knowing who I was. I don’t know how much time passed. I barely registered Rose dragging me to the base of the short stairs and holding me as the deadly light descended upon us. When I came to, Rose and the Doctor were helping me up, and we walked back to the observation deck, each of them holding one of my hands. </p><p>When we entered, the Doctor went over to the two other trees. “I’m sorry,” I heard him say, and that’s when I noticed Jabe was nowhere to be seen. </p><p>“You all right?” Rose asked for both of us. I still couldn’t speak. </p><p>“Yeah, I’m fine.” He didn’t look like it. He looked furious. I could feel it radiate off of him, and I reflexively took a step back. “I’m full of ideas, I’m bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two,” he walked over to the ostrich egg. “this feed must be hidden nearby.” He smashed it open on the pedestal to reveal a small device. “Idea number three, if you’re as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed.” He turned the top of it. </p><p>“Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces.” Cassandra got beamed back in. She saw everyone’s pissed off expression. “Oh.”</p><p>“The last human,” the Doctor simply stated.</p><p>“So, you passed my little test.” Her voice was shaking. “Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, er, the Human Club.”</p><p>“People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them.” His calm anger was bone-chilling.</p><p>“It depends on your definition of people, and that’s enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries,” she spat. “Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter--”</p><p>“And creak?” he interrupted her. </p><p>“And what?”</p><p>“Creak. You’re creaking.” He sounded a bit too jovial for my taste. </p><p>“What? Ah! I’m drying out! Oh, sweet heavens.” She was visibly drying out. “Moisturise me, moisturise me!” she shouted in sheer terror. “Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It’s too hot!”</p><p>“You raised the temperature.”</p><p>“Have pity! Moisturise me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I’m sorry. I’ll do anything.” I almost pitied her. Almost.</p><p>Rose walked over to the Doctor, still holding my hand. She put her free hand on his shoulder. “Help her,” she spoke softly.</p><p>“Everything has its time and everything dies.” Something deep inside me told me he wasn’t talking about Cassandra anymore. </p><p>“I’m too young!” Those were her last words before she exploded into ribbons of skin. </p><p>*****</p><p>“Shuttles four and six departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance,” the computer announced. </p><p>Rose, the Doctor and I were the only ones left on the observation deck, looking at the asteroids that were once the Earth as they floated past the red giant Sun.</p><p>“The end of the Earth,” she said softly, and I squeezed her hand. She returned the gesture. “It’s gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It’s just--”</p><p>“Come with me.” The Doctor took her free hand, and we walked out. </p><p>*****</p><p>We stepped out of the Tardis and in the middle of plentiful people going about their daily lives. I hadn’t let go of Rose’s hand this whole time, and she had made no motion to let go of mine. </p><p>“You think it’ll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won’t. One day it’s all gone. Even the sky,” the Doctor said, looking into the distance. “My planet’s gone. It’s dead.” He looked at us. “It burned like the Earth.” I heard its name in my mind: Gallifrey. “It’s just rocks and dust. Before its time.”</p><p>“What happened?” Rose asked. I still hadn’t said a thing. </p><p>“There was a war and we lost,” he explained. </p><p>“A war with who?” He didn’t answer, but I heard it anyway: Everyone. “What about your people?”</p><p>“I’m a Time Lord. I’m the last of the Time Lords,” he specified. “They’re all gone. I’m the only survivor. I’m left travelling on my own ‘cos there’s no one else.”</p><p>“There’s us,” I spoke up for the first time in what felt like hours. They both turned to look at me. </p><p>“You’ve seen how dangerous it is. Are you sure?” I simply nodded. He turned to Rose. “What about you? Do you want to go home?”</p><p>“I don’t know. I want…” She thought about it then stopped to smell the air. “Oh, can you smell chips?”</p><p>“Yeah. Yeah.” The Doctor chuckled. </p><p>“I want chips,” Rose announced. </p><p>“Me too. Angel?” </p><p>I smiled. “Yeah.”</p><p>“Right then, before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay.” She smacked the Doctor’s chest. </p><p>“No money,” he replied, and I shook my head when she looked at me. </p><p>“What sort of dates are you?” She laughed. “Come on then, tightwads, chips are on me. We’ve only got five billion years till the shops close.”</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. First Christmas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The Tardis was in a pretty jerky flight, and it filled me with glee. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hold that one down!” the Doctor shouted to Rose, pointing to a lever on the Tardis console. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m holding this one down!” she shouted back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Angel, hold the other one down!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am!” I yelled in response. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not going to work!” Rose was holding on for dear life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s flying her wrong!” I laughed. How did I know that? </span>
  <em>
    <span>No time to think about that.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oi!” He pointed at me. “No backseat driving!” He looked at Rose next. “I promised you a time machine and that’s what you’re getting. Now, you’ve seen the future, let’s have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What happened in 1860?” Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know, let’s find out.” He grinned. “Hold on, here we go!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We ended up laying on the floor, laughing, after a pretty rough landing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Blimey!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What she said,” I laughed out and got back on my feet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re telling me. Are you all right?” He stood up and helped Rose up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. I think so. Nothing broken,” she replied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll live.” I brushed some dust off my clothes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did we make it? Where are we?” she asked as we gathered around the monitor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I did it. Give the man a medal.” He looked so proud of himself, it warmed my heart. “Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860,” he stated, grinning wide.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s so weird.” She mused. “It’s Christmas.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, wow.” I blinked, vague memories of Christmases past coming back to me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All yours.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But, it’s like, think about it, though.” She looked between him and me. “Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it’s gone, it’s finished, it’ll never happen again.” She had this expression I couldn’t quite read. “Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still.” She turned to me, and her eyes told me she understood me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not a bad life.” He smiled softly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Better with three.” She smiled at us and ran to the door. “Come on, then.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” He made her stop mid-run. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“1860,” she answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go out there dressed like that, you’ll start a riot, Barbarella,” he warned. “There’s a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up! Both of you!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I chuckled and headed in the direction he was pointing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The wardrobe was enormous and filled with clothes from what I guessed was every single era of history, past and future. While Rose immediately found a period-appropriate dress, I had a bit more trouble. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I must have looked as lost as I felt because she walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “You alright?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I ran a hand through my hair. “Not really? I just…” I shook my head. “Never mind.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay. You can tell me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know if I’m a dress person,” I sighed. “I mean, I have boobs but I could be a trans guy, for all I know. I don’t remember my gender or what I usually wear and there’s so many options and--”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay, okay.” She stopped me. “Breathe.” I took a deep breath, and she continued. “Just relax, look around and go with what speaks to you.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I took another deep breath and nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose walked back into the console room first, appropriately coiffed and attired for 1860.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Blimey!” I only heard the Doctor’s reaction, but it almost felt like my heart had been pinched. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t laugh,” she chuckled somewhat nervously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You look beautiful,” he said, then seemed to catch himself. “considering.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Considering what?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That you’re human,” he answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think that’s a compliment. Aren’t you going to change?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ve changed my jumper. Come on.” I heard him move. “Where’s Grey?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose turned her head back to me and motioned for me to come over. I took a couple deep breaths and walked in. I wore a period-appropriate, dark blue suit over a binder. My hair was combed back, and I had a burgundy bow tie hanging from my neck. I hadn’t been able to tie it, and neither had Rose.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor stared at me when I walked into his line of sight, and I felt my cheeks heat up. “Oh,” was all he said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I knew it, I look ridiculous.” I went to turn back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, you don’t,” Rose reassured me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course, you do,” he disagreed. “Your bow tie is untied!” I blinked as he walked over to me and started tying it. “There.” He nodded, satisfied with his work. “Let’s go.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose smiled. “You stay there.” She pointed at him. “You’ve done this before. This is mine.” She walked out and stepped gingerly into the fallen snow. I followed after her, and the Doctor shut the door behind the three of us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ready for this?” He hooked his arms with ours. “Here we go. History.” We walked down the street while a choir sang what I assumed was a Christmas carol. The Doctor let go of our arms after a bit to buy a newspaper. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I thought you didn’t have any money?” I asked when he came back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He just waggled his eyebrows at me in response and opened the newspaper as we started walking again. “I got the flight a bit wrong,” he said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t care,” Rose shook her head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not 1860, it’s 1869.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nice,” I snickered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t care,” she repeated but shot me a smirk.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And it’s not Naples,” he continued. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t care.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s Cardiff.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That stopped Rose in her tracks, for some reason. “Right.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I frowned. “What’s wrong with Cardiff?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it.” He waved it off. We kept walking, and Rose caught back up to us. Screams came out from a building, and the Doctor grinned. “That’s more like it!” He tossed the newspaper over his shoulder and ran towards the screaming. I exchanged glances with Rose, and we ran after him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Inside the theatre(?), the crowd panicked as a weird, blue, glowy entity flew around the room. People were screaming and running around, and I had some trouble taking it all in. Amidst the chaos, I saw an old lady collapse, and I instinctively ran over. A young woman and an old man had beat me to it and picked her up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oi! Leave her alone!” I heard Rose yelling behind me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doctor!” I shouted. “We got her!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I heard him warn us to be careful, but I was too busy running after the two people carrying the old lady outside. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> “What’re you doing?!” Rose demanded when we caught up to them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, it’s a tragedy, miss.” The young woman quickly stepped in between us and the back of the carriage. They had already put her inside. “Sir.” The young woman nodded to me. “Don’t worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady’s been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary,” she said dismissively. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose just pushed her aside and tried to feel the old lady’s pulse. “She’s cold!” Rose looked at me then back to the young lady. “She’s dead! Oh, my God, what’d you do to her?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The last thing I remember is a chemical smell before I woke up, lying on the floor of a room I didn’t recognize. I got up, feeling a bit groggy and noticed Rose sitting on a table, rubbing her head. I then saw the pale man sitting up in a coffin, behind her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rose?” She looked up at me. “Rose, get up.” I pointed at the man, who was stepping out of the coffin. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose looked over her shoulder and quickly got off the table. “Are you all right?” she asked the very much not alright man. He just groaned in response. “You’re kidding me, yeah?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, he’s not!!” I yelled. “He’s a fucking zombie! I repeat,” I said even louder, hoping to be heard by someone outside the room. “This is not a drill!! It’s a goddamn zombie!” Rose and I ran to the door as the previously dead old lady also stepped out of a coffin. “Two zombies!!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let us out!” Rose pounded on the door, and I was getting some serious deja vu. “Open the door!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Please, please, let us out!! I joined in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Let us out! Somebody open the door! Open the door!” We screamed, and the zombies grabbed at us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The door flew open, revealing the Doctor, and I was flooded with relief. “I think this is my dance.” He pulled us away from the zombies. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s a prank. It must be,” some guy I didn’t know interjected. “We’re under some mesmeric influence.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, we’re not. The dead are walking,” the Doctor announced. “Hi.” The way he greeted us was so casual. It was a bit jarring but also reassuring, in a way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” I replied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” Rose echoed. “Who’s your friend?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Charles Dickens,” the Doctor helpfully informed us.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Okay.” Rose just accepted that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right,” I cleared my throat. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Who?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My name’s the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Sure, talk to the zombies. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Failing,” they answered with several ethereal voices. “Open the rift. We’re dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!” Weird blue entities left the dead bodies, and they collapsed to the floor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The six of us had gathered into what turned out to be the mortuary’s living room. The young woman, Gwyneth, was pouring everyone some tea because, apparently, that’s how the English deal with trauma.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“First of all you drug us, then you kidnap us,” Rose was chewing the old man, Sneed, out and it was very entertaining. “and don’t think I didn’t feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I won’t be spoken to like this!” He looked so affronted at being yelled at by a girl, and it filled me with delight. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then you stuck us in a room full of zombies!” she continued. I didn’t feel the need to put in my two cents, she had this. “And if that ain’t enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not my fault. It’s this house,” Sneed protested. “It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs,” he glanced at Charles, “the er, dear departed started getting restless.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Tommyrot,” Charles shook his head. Rose had explained he was a famous author.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You witnessed it. Can’t keep the beggars down, sir,” Sneed insisted. “They walk. And it’s the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gwyneth put down a cup of tea on the mantelpiece next to the Doctor. “Two sugars, sir, just how you like it,” she spoke softly and went back to pouring tea. I exchanged glances with the Doctor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service,” Sneed explained. “Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Morbid fancy.” Charles refused to believe.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Charles, you were there.” The Doctor reminded him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I saw nothing but an illusion.” I hoped Charles’ skepticism wouldn’t last because it was getting tedious and frustrating. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If you’re going to deny it, don’t waste my time.” It seemed the Doctor agreed with me. “Just shut up.” Charles looked offended, but at least, he shut up. “What about the gas?” the Doctor turned his attention to Sneed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s new, sir,” he answered. “Never seen anything like that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Means it’s getting stronger,” the Doctor explained. “the rift’s getting wider and something’s sneaking through.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s the rift?” I asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That’s the cause of ghost stories, most of the time,” he replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sneed looked like something had just dawned on him. “That’s how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations.” Dickens left the room, slamming the door. “Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul,” Sneed continued. “Mind you, truth be told, it’s been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The six of us sat around a table in the living room. The Doctor had managed Charles to come back, and Rose had learned that Gwyneth had some psychic abilities. So, of course, on Christmas, in a haunted house, we were holding a séance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in ButeTown.” Gwyneth held out her hands to Charles and the Doctor. “Come, we must all join hands.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t take part in this.” Charles stood up from his seat, and I groaned in frustration. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor put a hand on my shoulder as if to stop me from making a mistake. “Humbug? Come on, open mind.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask,” Charles protested. “Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Now, don’t antagonize her. I love a happy medium.” The Doctor grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose chuckled, “I can’t believe you just said that.” I chuckled with her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come on,” he insisted. “we might need you.” Charles begrudgingly sat back down between Gwyneth and Rose, and we all held hands. “Good man.” The Doctor nodded at him. “Now, Gwyneth, reach out,” he instructed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gwyneth nodded. “Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden.” I started hearing whispering voices all around us, and my stomach immediately tied up in knots.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can you hear that?” Rose murmured, and I nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nothing can happen--” Charles started.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shut up!” I whisper-yelled at him. He looked offended, but I ignored him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Look at her.” Rose nodded towards Gwyneth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gwyneth looked like she was only half in the room, and her other half was somewhere else. “I see them. I feel them.” Blue tendrils appeared around us, and the whispers intensified.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s it saying?” Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> “They can’t get through the rift,” the Doctor answered. He could understand them. “Gwyneth, it’s not controlling you, you’re controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you can,” he encouraged her. “Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She focused, and I physically felt her make the connection. “Yes!” she exclaimed. Blue outlines of people appeared behind her, and my bad feeling got even worse. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Great God!” Sneed exclaimed. “Spirits from the other side.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The other side of the universe.” The Doctor looked in awe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The figures spoke with two children’s voices, and Gwyneth spoke with them. “Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you want us to do?” the Doctor asked them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What for?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why, what happened?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“War? What war?” Dickens chimed in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Time War,” the Gelth answered. Rose and I glanced at the Doctor. “The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We’re trapped in this gaseous state.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So that’s why you need the corpses,” the Doctor surmised. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They’re going to waste. Give them to us,” the Gelth demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And that’s when I voiced my feelings. “No!” I exclaimed, standing up and letting go of Sneed and the Doctor’s hands. Everyone looked at me with wide eyes. “No, something’s wrong!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth,” they pleaded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It could save their lives,” the Doctor interjected, but I shook my head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s all wrong,” I insisted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Pity the Gelth!” The Gelth went back into the gas lamps, and Gwyneth collapsed across the table.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A little later, Gwyneth had been laid on the chaise longue.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s all right,” Rose spoke to her gently. “You just sleep.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But my angels, miss. They came, didn’t they? They need me?” Gwyneth asked weakly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They do need you, Gwyneth,” the Doctor answered. “You’re they’re only chance of survival.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, goddammit,” I repeated. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ve told you, leave her alone,” Rose backed me up. “She’s exhausted and she’s not fighting your battles. Drink this.” She gave her a glass of water. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” The Doctor turned to me. “They’re dying.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I told you, something’s wrong. I don’t know how I know but I know,” I explained the best I could. “They didn’t tell us everything, I feel it in my gut.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you willing to risk an entire species because of your gut?” The Doctor pressed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I frowned at him, and in an instant, I understood him. I saw him clearly. “Are you willing to risk an innocent’s life and possibly the entire planet because of your own guilt?” I countered. The room went impossibly silent as he looked at me, really looked at me, like he was seeing me better than before. I don’t know how long we spent gazing into each other’s eyes, and although no words were spoken, plenty was said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, what did you say, Doctor?” Sneed interrupted the silence, demonstrating his lack of situational awareness. “Explain it again. What are they?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Aliens,” the Doctor explained, not taking his eyes off of me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Like foreigners, you mean?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He turned to Sneed. “Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there.” He pointed to the ceiling. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Brecon?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Close.” The Doctor nodded. “And they’ve been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road’s blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they’re weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes,” he explained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But something’s wrong?” Charles asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” I answered before the Doctor could. “They’re lying to us.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And the girl?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They’re not having her,” Rose insisted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Living on the rift, she’s become part of it,” the Doctor explained. “She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers.” Charles laughed incredulously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But again,” I interjected, “That’s not everything. We shouldn’t do anything until we know the whole story.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And how do you suggest we do that?” the Doctor asked me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I may have an idea.” We all turned toward Gwyneth as she spoke up. “Come to me.” She motioned for me to come over, and I did. She focused on me for a moment before speaking again. “You’re lost. You’ve lost everything you are, so far away.” The Doctor stepped closer. Gwyneth furrowed her brow. “Even your own mind is foreign to you. My Lord, you’ve come so far! The light, it changed you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” I asked, concerned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There’s never been anything like you,” she continued. “And you’ve been here, before. No. You’ve </span>
  <em>
    <span>seen</span>
  </em>
  <span> here. They’re not angels, they’re deceivers!” She leaned back, blinking a few times. “They mean to destroy us.” Everyone instinctively looked to the Doctor, myself included. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do we do, Doctor?” Rose was the one to voice our thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We need to close the rift.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Of course, the rift was in the morgue. It was a cold basement with dead bodies lying under white sheets. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor looked around the room. “Urgh. Talk about Bleak House.” I gave him a look. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How do I do it, Doctor?” Gwyneth asked him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doctor,” Charles interrupted. “I think the room is getting colder.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here they come,” Rose said as whispers filled the room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A Gelth came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under a stone archway. “You’ve come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I cleared my throat. “Yeah, about that…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth,” the entity pleaded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor looked at everyone. “Okay, where’s the weak point?” I almost said something, but I chose to trust him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here, beneath the arch,” the Gelth answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Beneath the arch,” Gwyneth replied. With a nod from the Doctor, she stood under the arch, inside the Gelth. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!” the Gelth exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Now, Gwyneth!” the Doctor shouted. “Close the connection, shut them out!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The sweet blue apparition turned flame red with sharp teeth. It’s voice deepened and hardened. “No! No, let us through!! The legions of the Gelth must be freed!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good Lord.” Charles made a crossing motion over his chest.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No,” Gwyneth refused. “You are devils. You lied to me, I will not let you take over this world!” With an ungodly shriek, the entity was sucked into the arch. An alarming number of other Gelth were sucked out from the lamps, and into what I assumed was the rift. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You did it, Gwyneth!” The Doctor rushed over to her and caught her just as she collapsed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We gathered on the street outside the mortuary as Gwyneth rested inside. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do we do now, Doctor?” Sneed asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Keep living your lives. The rift is closed now, you’re safe.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And the girl?” Charles asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’ll be fine.” The Doctor smiled. “Just make sure she rests for a few days.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course.” Sneed nodded. “I should go check on her. Merry Christmas and thank you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Charles had followed us as we walked back to the Tardis.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right then, Charlie boy, I’ve just got to go into my, er,” the Doctor hesitated for a second, looking at the Tardis. “shed. Won’t be long.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you going to do now?” Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all, I’ve learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital.” Charles’ new enthusiasm made me smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve cheered up,” the Doctor remarked, smiling as well. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Exceedingly!” he exclaimed. “This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I’ve just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I’m inspired. I must write about them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose tilted her head. “Do you think that’s wise?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I shall be subtle at first,” he reassured her. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy’s uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals.” He grinned. “I can spread the word, tell the truth.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good luck with it. Nice to meet you,” the Doctor said. “Fantastic.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Goodbye, Charles.” I shook his hand. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Bye, then, and thanks.” Rose shook his hand as well and then kissed his cheek.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looked a bit flustered by that. “Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don’t understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ll see. In the shed.” The Doctor unlocked the Tardis door. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Upon my soul, Doctor, it’s one riddle after another with you.” Charles shook his head incredulously. “But after all these revelations, there’s one mystery you still haven’t explained. Answer me this. Who are you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He seemed to think about it for a moment. “Just a friend, passing through.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But you have such knowledge of future times,” Charles insisted. “I don’t wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yes!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“For how long?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Forever.” It seemed to fill Charles with so much joy. “Right. Shed. Come on, you two.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In the box? All three of you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Down boy,” the Doctor warned teasingly. “See you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We all went inside the Tardis, and I took a seat cause that was a lot. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doesn’t that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?” Rose wondered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In a week’s time it’s 1870,” the Doctor answered. “and that’s the year he dies. Sorry. He’ll never get to tell his story.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh…” I looked down at my lap.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, no. He was so nice.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But in your time, he was already dead. We’ve brought him back to life, and he’s more alive now than he’s ever been, old Charlie boy.” I heard the Doctor’s smile. “Let’s give him one last surprise.”</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. First Dalek</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>After the Slitheen had almost destroyed the Earth and we had nearly died (again), I was taking a break. Being chased by a giant monster, getting trapped in a room while aliens planned World War Three and hiding in a closet from a missile had taken a lot out of me. I had a bedroom in the Tardis. Well, it was a room where I had been sleeping for the past few nights, but I hadn’t really taken the time to make it mine. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nevertheless, I was sitting on the bed and reading one of the library’s many books. It was a compendium of Time Lord fairy tales and surprisingly compelling. I was just beginning my read of The Three Little Sontarans when there was a knock on the door. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” I called out, putting a bookmark between the pages. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor poked his head in. “There you are.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You were looking for me?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Mind if I come in?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “It’s your ship.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s your room,” he countered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That made me smile a little. “Sure, come in.” I put the book on the side table. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He walked in and sat on the foot of the bed. “Whatcha reading?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Time Lord Fairy Tales?” I scooted closer to him. “What’s up?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He nodded, clasping his hands together like he was uncomfortable or something. “Good, good.” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to check up on you, see how you’re doing.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I bit my lip. “I… I’m fine, I guess?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You guess?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I just…” I sighed. “There’s just… been a lot happening…” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He stayed quiet for a few moments. “Do you want to stop?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No!” I exclaimed. “Gods, no.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was staring at his hands, wiring them awkwardly. “I don’t want you to stay just ‘cos you feel like you’ve got nowhere else to go.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I moved so I was sitting right next to him and I grabbed his hand. “Doctor, I don’t remember my home.” That made him look at me. “Hell, I don’t know if I even had a home. I barely know who or what I am.” I took a deep breath. “My life so far, as far as I remember, is full of unknowns and danger and chaos. We face death basically every day and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t care what happened before I met you. This, you, Rose, Time and Space, this is my home, now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He smiled at me, and I smiled back. “Welcome home, then, Angel.” I pulled him into a hug, and he hugged back somewhat hesitantly like he hadn’t expected it. “Welcome home.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We stepped out of the Tardis and into a dimly lit area with carpeting and display cases. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong?” I asked, putting a hand on the blue wood. “Is she okay?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t know,” the Doctor sighed. “Some kind of signal drawing the Tardis off course.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where are we?” Rose asked, looking around the spot where we landed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Earth. Utah, North America,” he informed us. “About half a mile underground.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And when are we?” she asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Two thousand and twelve.” He looked at the nearest display case.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“God, that’s so close. So I should be twenty-six.” She mused. The Doctor found the light switch and revealed the rest of the room. “Blimey. It’s a great big museum.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“An alien museum,” he specified. “Someone’s got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this.” He started walking around to check the cases. “Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That’s the milometer from the Roswell spaceship.” We followed him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s a bit of Slitheen!” Rose pointed at another one. “That’s a Slitheen’s arm. It’s been stuffed.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He stopped in front of one. “Oh, look at you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I looked over to it. “Friend of yours?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What is it?” she asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a robot(?) ’s head. “More like an old enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit.” He sighed. “I’m getting old.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is that where the signal’s coming from?” I asked.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s stone dead.” It was like he couldn’t take his eyes off it. “The signal’s alive. Something’s reaching out, calling for help.” He touched the display case, and an alarm went off. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Armed guards almost immediately rushed in from all sides and cut us off from the Tardis.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If someone’s collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A,” Rose murmured.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I raised my hands. “Take us to your leader.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And they did! They escorted us, at gunpoint, to the big boss’ office. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A young Englishman was showing him an alien artifact. “And this is the last. Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What does it do?” the boss asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, you see the tubes on the side?” The young man showed him. “It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I really wouldn’t hold it like that,” the Doctor interjected. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shut it,” a lady who’d joined us as we were escorted barked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Really, though, that’s wrong,” the Doctor insisted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The young man looked up. “Is it dangerous?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, it just looks silly.” The Doctor reached for the item, and guns clicked all around us. The big boss man handed him the curved, palm-sized object. “You just need to be,” The Doctor stroked the artifact, and it made a musical note. “Delicate.” He played more notes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s a musical instrument.” Big boss looked at it in awe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor nodded, a soft smile on his face. “And it’s a long way from home.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here, let me.” Big boss took it back from the Doctor. His touch was harsher and produced some not very nice sounds. I got a brief flashback of Thor screaming something about touching it gently.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I did say delicate.” The Doctor reminded him. “It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision.” Big boss finally got the hang of it. “Very good. Quite the expert.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“As are you.” He just casually tossed the instrument aside, onto the floor. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rude</span>
  </em>
  <span>. “Who exactly are you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I’m the Doctor. And who are you?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Like you don’t know.” His self-important tone made me instantly dislike him. “We’re hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor grinned. “Pretty much sums me up, yeah.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplices.” Ass boss motioned to Rose and me. “You’re quite a collector yourself, she’s rather pretty.” He looked at me. “So’s she.” He looked Rose up and down. I felt like I was gonna throw up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s going to smack you if you keep calling her she.” Rose was on it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s what I get for wearing a skirt,” I muttered to myself.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She’s English too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy.” He turned to the young man. “Got you a girlfriend.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is Mister Henry Van Statten,” the young man informed us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And who’s he when he’s at home?” Rose asked, unimpressed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Mister Van Statten owns the internet.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be stupid.” Rose frowned. “No one owns the internet.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And let’s just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?” Van Statten chuckled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So you’re just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum.” The Doctor was also very unimpressed. “Anything you don’t understand, you lock up.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And you claim greater knowledge?” Van Statten challenged. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t need to make claims,” the Doctor shook his head. “I know how good I am.” That made me smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And yet, I captured you. Right next to the Cage.” Gods, that man-made my skin crawl. “What were you doing down there?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You tell me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The cage contains my one living specimen.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And what’s that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Like you don’t know.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Show me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You want to see it?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” I rolled my eyes. “Put the rulers away, boys. Zip up.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Van Statten just shot me a grin. “Goddard,” He spoke to the lady, “inform the Cage we’re heading down. You, English.” He nodded to the young man. “Look after the girl.” He motioned to Rose. “Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. “And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet. You too, Snappy.” I guessed that was me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Van Douchen had taken us down to ‘the Cage’ and was in exposition mode. “We’ve tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there’s definite signs of life inside.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Inside?” the Doctor asked. “Inside what?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Welcome back, sir,” A man wearing a bright orange rubber suit greeted his boss. “I’ve had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Metaltron?” I frowned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thought of it myself. Good, isn’t it?” Van Douchen bragged. “Although I’d much prefer to find out it’s real name.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here, you’d better put these on.” Orange guy held out big rubber gloves for the Doctor. “The last guy that touched it…. burst into flames.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I won’t touch it then,” the Doctor responded, his arms crossed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead, Doctor. Impress me.” Douchen stepped aside to let the Doctor into the dark room that was the Cage. “You stay here, Snappy.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s not their name,” the Doctor said as he stepped through the heavy door. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t open that door until we get a result,” Douchen ordered one of his people. He and Goddard went to a desk with monitors on it. “What’s your name, then?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Grey Angel.” I didn’t really feel like telling him, but I didn’t like Snappy, so...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Cute.” He focused on a monitor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The door was shut and locked behind the Doctor, but I could hear him through the speakers. “Look, I’m sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he’s clever, but never mind him. I’ve come to help. I’m the Doctor.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doc Tor?” the thing inside spoke in a metallic voice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Impossible,” the Doctor gasped. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Doctor?” it asked, then started shouting. “Exterminate! Exterminate!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor hammered on the door in terror. “Let me out!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Exterminate!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sir, it’s going to kill him,” Goddard yelled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s talking!” Van Douchen protested.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get him the fuck out!!” I screamed, running over to Douchen and the monitors. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!” I saw it. The Dalek turned out to be a very angry pepper pot being held in chains. Its weird gun-looking thing twitched, but nothing happened.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not working.” The Doctor started laughing as the Dalek looked at its impotent weapon. “Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?” The Doctor stood inches away from it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Keep back!” the Dalek ordered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What for?” the Doctor laughed out. “What’re you going to do to me? If you can’t kill, then what are you good for, Dalek?” he taunted it. “What’s the point of you? You’re nothing. What the hell are you here for?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am waiting for orders,” it responded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What does that mean?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well you’re never going to get any. Not ever.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I had never seen the Doctor like this. He was angry and vindictive and petty. I could feel the hate coming out of the Cage, both from the Dalek and the Doctor. But while the Dalek was nothing but hatred, the Doctor was filled with rage, sorrow, and pain. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I demand orders!” it screamed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They’re never going to come! Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For a moment, I saw it: Gallifrey, surrounded by Dalek ships, and everything burned. And I heard the screams, and I felt the pain of billions of lives reduced to ashes. For a second that lasted for hours, I burned with them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You lie!” The Dalek’s shout brought me back to reality, and I stumbled a few steps back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I watched it happen. I made it happen,” the Doctor spat at it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You destroyed us?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I had no choice.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And what of the Time Lords?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Dead.” The Doctor spoke quietly now. “They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And the coward survived.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me. Poor little thing,” he mocked his age-old enemy. “But there’s no one else coming ’cause there’s no one else left.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am alone in the universe.” The Dalek sounded almost sad, but I still only felt its hatred.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yep.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So are you. We are the same.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re not the same! I’m not--” The Doctor paused. “No, wait. Maybe we are. You’re right. Yeah, okay. You’ve got a point.” He sounded manic. “‘Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve. Exterminate.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He must have done something because the Dalek started screaming in pain. “Have pity!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why should I? You never did.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get him out,” Van Statten ordered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Help me!” the Dalek kept screaming.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Guards rushed in to grab the Doctor as Van Statten went in to yell at the Dalek. “I saved your life. Now talk to me. Goddamn it, talk to me!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve got to destroy it!” the Doctor screamed while the guards dragged him out. I was taken away with him, though of my own free will. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The metal’s just battle armour. The real Dalek creature’s inside,” the Doctor explained. We were in the elevator back up to the office. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What does it look like?” Van Douchen asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A nightmare. It’s a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Genetically engineered. By whom?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You’d like him.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s been on Earth for over fifty years,” Goddard chimed in. “Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Because I’m here. How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?” the Doctor asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite,” she answered. “It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It must have fallen through time,” the Doctor surmised. “The only survivor.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You talked about a war?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Time War,” I spoke quietly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor nodded. “The last battle between my people and the Daleks.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But you survived, too,” Van Douchen checked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not by choice,” the Doctor replied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What about you?” Douchen asked me. “Were you part of that?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I shook my head. “I’m not a Time Lord.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This means that the Dalek isn’t the only alien on Earth.” Douchen grinned, and I got a terrible feeling. “Doctor, there’s you. The only one of your kind in existence.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So we were captured and separated. I was locked into a small room, for I don’t know how long. I didn’t know where the Doctor was, but I could feel his pain. Banging on the door and yelling got me nowhere, so I sat down in a corner. At least, I had some time to think about how the fuck I was able to feel what others felt. Not to mention the flashbacks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Back in Cardiff, Gwyneth had said I had been ‘changed’ by some light and that I was ‘something new’. It was most likely that light -- whatever it was -- that had given me the feeling thing. But the flashbacks, were they memories? What kind of life did I lead that I had witnessed the destruction of Gallifrey? Did I see that with the other Doctor from where I came from?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Answers were going to have to wait because two guards came in and escorted me back to Van Douchen’s office. I was informed that the Doctor had been released because the Dalek was escaping. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Goddard, Van Douchen and the Doctor were gathered around a large screen on one of the walls. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve got to keep it in that cell,” the Doctor was saying. He glanced at me. “Hi.” I nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose was on the screen. “Doctor, it’s all my fault.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ve sealed the compartment,” one of the guards that were down there said. “It can’t get out, that lock’s got a billion combinations.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A Dalek’s a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat,” the Doctor warned. And that’s precisely what the Dalek did.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Open fire!” another guard shouted, and all the guards started shooting. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t shoot it!” Van Douchen commanded. “I want it unharmed.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rose, get out of there!” I shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive,” the guard that had said to fire ordered another one. “That is your job, got that?” Rose and the young Englishman were taken out of the room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Dalek glided up to the wall monitor and smashed it. We lost our visual of the Cage. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Goddard sat down at the computer and started typing. “We’re losing power. It’s draining the base,” she announced. “Oh, my God. It’s draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s downloading,” the Doctor corrected her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Downloading what?” Douchen asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down,” Goddard said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not just energy,” the Doctor explained. “That Dalek just absorbed the entire internet. It knows everything.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So much porn…” I muttered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The cameras in the vault have gone down,” Goddard informed us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’ve only got emergency power. It’s eaten everything else. You’ve got to kill it now!” the Doctor yelled at the bureaucrats.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately,” Goddard called on the comms. It didn’t take long for the sounds of gunfire to start.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Tell them to stop shooting at it,” Douchen ordered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But it’s killing them!” Goddard protested. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They’re dispensable. That Dalek is unique. I don’t want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me? Do you hear me?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And so I punched him. I really didn’t know my own strength because I actually knocked him out. The gunfire stopped, but only because there was no one left to use the guns. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neither Goddard nor the Doctor protested to me knocking the douchebag out. Goddard brought up a schematic of the base on the computer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s us, right below the surface.” She pointed at one of the dots on the screen. “That’s the cage, and that’s the Dalek.” She pointed at another dot, below ours.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?” the Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek’s between us and them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Great,” I groaned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s got to go through this area.” The Doctor pointed at a portion of the map. “What’s that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Weapons testing,” Goddard answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone,” the Doctor instructed. “Only then have you got a chance of killing it.” The Doctor took her place at the computer when she ran off to arm everyone. “Nice right hook.” He shot me a smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thanks.” I cleared my throat. “I wasn’t sure you’d approve but he’s really been getting on my nerves.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He called you Snappy!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Of course, Van Statten didn’t stay knocked out forever. He wasted no time to be a dick, as soon as he came to. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I thought you were the great expert, Doctor,” he taunted, holding his head. “If you’re so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor glanced up from the computer. “What’s the nearest town?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Salt Lake City.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Population?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“One million.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All dead,” the Doctor stated. “If the Dalek gets out, it’ll murder every living creature. That’s all it needs.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But why would it do that?” Van Douchen demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It’s the ultimate in racial cleansing, and you, Van Statten, you’ve let it loose!” The Doctor leaned over the microphone that was connected to the guards’ earpieces. “The Dalek’s surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it’s not indestructible, he explained. “If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. “That’s the weak spot.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot,” the guard in charge talked back. “Positions!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, you don’t, you idiot!” I shouted. “You’re gonna get slaughtered if you don’t listen!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’ve got vision.” Goddard, who had come back, nodded to the screen on the wall.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It wants us to see.” The Doctor said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The hail of bullets had no effect. Then the Dalek started to rise straight up into the air. It zapped something and set off the sprinklers. It waited a bit, and then it fired downwards and electrocuted every wet person on the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The guy in charge shouted. “Fall back! Fall back!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Dalek killed him and the rest of his men with another strategic shot, then continued to hang there, water pouring down its shell.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps it’s time for a new strategy,” Van Douchen reasoned, finally looking afraid. He hadn’t looked at me since I’d knocked him out, and I was okay with it. “Maybe we should consider abandoning this place.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Except there’s no power to the helipad, sir. We can’t get out,” Goddard reminded him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then let’s seal the vault,” he said. “It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Goddard shook her head. “There’s not enough power, those bulkheads are massive.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’ve got emergency power,” I countered. “We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors, right”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’d have to bypass the security codes,” she explained. “That would take a computer genius.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good thing you’ve got me, then.” Van Douchen grinned and sat at the computer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You want to help?” the Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to die, Doctor.” He glanced over. “Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Goddard nodded to the screen. “Sir.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Dalek was back on the ground. “I shall speak only to the Doctor.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor walked over. “You’re going to get rusty.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, that ain’t good.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s your next trick?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I have been searching for the Daleks,” it explained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What did you find?” The Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nothing.” This time, for the first time, I felt more than hate coming from the Dalek. It was actually sad. “Where shall I get my orders now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re just a soldier without commands,” the Doctor stated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer,” it shouted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What for? What’s the point? Don’t you see it’s all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for,” the Doctor shouted right back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then what should I do?” It felt so lost.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself.” The Doctor radiated so much anger. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Daleks must survive!” it argued. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Daleks have failed! Why don’t you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct,” the Doctor argued back. “Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don’t you just die?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You would make a good Dalek.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The screen went blank. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I placed a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder and looked at Douchen. “Seal the Vault.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can leech power off the ground defences, feed it to the bulkheads,” he said. “God, it’s been years since I had to work this fast.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor spun on his heels to face him. “Are you enjoying this?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doctor, she’s still down there.” Goddard got us back on track. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor called Rose and put her on speaker. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This isn’t the best time.” She sounded a bit winded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where are you?” I asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Level forty-nine.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve got to keep moving. The vault’s being sealed off up at level forty-six,” the Doctor told her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can’t you stop them closing?” she asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m the one who’s closing them. I can’t wait and I can’t help you.” His pain almost knocked me back. “Now for God’s sake, run.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Done it,” Van Statten announced. “We’ve got power to the bulkheads.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Goddard checked everyone’s position, on the computer map. “The Dalek’s right behind them.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re nearly there!” Rose shouted. “Give us two seconds.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Doctor,” Van Statten got his attention. “I can’t sustain the power. The whole system is failing. Doctor, you’ve got to close the bulkheads.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry.” The Doctor hit Enter, and we waited anxiously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The vault is sealed,” Van Statten told us, after a little time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rose, where are you?” I asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rose, did you make it?” the Doctor joined me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was panting. “Sorry, I was a bit slow.” I gripped the Doctor’s hand. “See you, then, Doctor. Angel. It wasn’t your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn’t your fault.” The Doctor squeezed my hand. “And do you know what?” Tears blurred my vision. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Exterminate!” Zap!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor hung up. “I killed her.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” Van Douchen said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I turned and looked at him with daggers in my eyes. “You’re sorry??”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I said I’d protect her.” The Doctor turned to him as well. “She was only here because of me, and you’re sorry? I could’ve killed that Dalek in it’s cell, but you stopped me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It was the prize of my collection!” He tried to defend himself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Your collection?” the Doctor spat. “But was it worth it? Worth all those men’s deaths? Worth Rose?” he shouted. “Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You’re about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you.” The Doctor turned back to the blank screen. “She was nineteen years old.” The young Englishman (still didn’t know his name) entered the office. “You were quick on your feet, leaving Rose behind.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m not the one who sealed the vault!” he exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Dalek’s voice came from the screen. “Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re alive!” the Doctor and I screamed in relief. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was at Dalek gunpoint, but she was alive. “Can’t get rid of me,” she chuckled nervously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I thought you were dead,” the Doctor said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Open the bulkhead!” the Dalek commanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t do it!” Rose yelled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?” the Dalek taunted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I killed her once. I can’t do it again.” The Doctor hit Enter again, opening the bulkhead and letting Rose and the Dalek through.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do we do now, you bleeding heart?” Van Douchen demanded. “What the hell do we do?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kill it when it gets here,” the young man said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“All the guns are useless,” Goddard argued. “and the alien weapons are in the vault.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Only the catalogued ones.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In Adam’s workshop (that was the young man’s name), the Doctor was going through a box of alien weapons. More like throwing aside anything that wasn’t working for him. “Broken. Broken. Hairdryer.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory,” Adam explained. “I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What, you in a fight? I’d like to see that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I smacked the Doctor’s shoulder. “Hey, be nice.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I could do,” Adam protested. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’re you going to do, throw your A-Levels at ’em?” He pulled out a big, mean-looking gun. “Oh, yes. Lock and load.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We ran up the stairs, all the way to level 1. Rose was in the middle of the room, standing in front of the Dalek. A ray of sunlight fell upon them, coming from a hole in the ceiling. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get out of the way,” the Doctor ordered. She looked at us over her shoulder. “Rose, get out of the way now!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No. I won’t let you do this,” she disagreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That thing killed hundreds of people,” he argued.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s not the one pointing the gun at me,” was her answer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to end it,” he cried out. “The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I’ve got nothing left.” I put a hand on his back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Look at it.” Rose stepped aside, revealing that the Dalek had opened its outer shell. Inside, was a gooey-looking alien squid thing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s it doing?” The Doctor lowered his weapon a little. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s the sunlight, that’s all it wants,” she answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But it can’t…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It couldn’t kill Van Statten, it couldn’t kill me. It’s changing,” she insisted. “What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I couldn’t. I wasn’t. Oh, Rose,” he sobbed. “They’re all dead.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why do we survive?” the Dalek asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” he answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am the last of the Daleks.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re not even that.” He completely lowered the gun. “Rose did more than regenerate you. You’ve absorbed her DNA. You’re mutating.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Into what?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Something new. I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Isn’t that better?” Rose asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor shook his head. “Not for a Dalek.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s so lost, Rose,” I said softly. “It hurts.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. Rose, give me orders,” it pleaded. “Order me to die.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t do that.” She shook her head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction!” it shouted. “Obey! Obey! Obey!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do it,” she said shakily. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” She nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So am I. Exterminate.” The Dalek shut its eye, and Rose retreated as it closed up its armour again then rose into the air. The balls on its lower body spread out around it, creating a forcefield, then it imploded safely.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor gently placed a hand on the Tardis door. “A little piece of home. Better than nothing.” I wrapped an arm around him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is that the end of it, the Time War?” Rose asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m the only one left. I win,” he scoffed. “How about that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too,” she tried to cheer him up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’d know. In here.” He tapped his temple. “Feels like there’s no one.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well then,” I smiled, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “good thing we’re not going anywhere.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Adam walked over to us. “We’d better get out. Van Statten’s disappeared. They’re closing down the base. Goddard says they’re going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed,” he said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose looked over. “About time.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll have to go back home,” Adam sighed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Better hurry up then.” The Doctor turned to face him, moving me with him. “Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars,” Rose told the Doctor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Tell him to go and stand outside, then,” he countered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s all on his own, Doctor, and he did help,” she insisted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He left you down there.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So did you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’re you talking about?” Adam asked. I held up my hand, telling him to wait. “We’ve got to leave.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Plus, he’s a bit pretty,” the Doctor added. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I hadn’t noticed,” she said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor relented. “On your own head.” He unlocked the Tardis.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What’re you doing?” Adam called after us as we went into the Tardis. “She said cement. She wasn’t joking. We’re going to get sealed in.”</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Memories</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>We stepped out of the Tardis without Adam, and I leaned against the side. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So, it's two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship," the Doctor explained. "No, wait a minute, space station, and er, go and try that gate over there." He pointed over to a gate. "Off you go." He leaned against the other side of the Tardis.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Two hundred thousand?" Rose checked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Two hundred thousand."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She nodded. "Right." She knocked on the Tardis door and opened it. "Adam? Out you come."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He came out, and his jaw dropped. "Oh, my God."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't worry, you'll get used to it," she reassured him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looked around in awe. "Where are we?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good question. Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah." He nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Engines. We're on some sort of space station." She looked around. "Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here." She pulled her collar. "They could turn the heating down. Tell you what - let's try that gate." She pointed to it. "Come on!" Rose led the way through the metal gate to a massive window. "Here we go! And this is--" She waited for us to join us. "I'll let the Doctor describe it."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at its height. Covered with megacities, five moons, population ninety-six billion," the Doctor explained. "The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle." And Adam fainted. "He's your boyfriend."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Not anymore," Rose replied. I snorted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on, Adam." The Doctor was basically pushing Adam back through the room where we'd landed. "Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Out of the way!" He was interrupted by a man rushing past. Suddenly, many people bustled around, opening up food vending stations and serving customers at their counters. Cacophony filled the room in mere moments. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Fine cuisine?" Rose nodded to the fast-food stalls. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"My watch must be wrong." The Doctor checked his watch. "No, it's fine. It's weird."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's what comes of showing off," Rose chuckled. "Your history's not as good as you thought it was."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"My history's perfect," he retorted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, obviously not," she laughed. I just shook my head, smiling. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They're all human," Adam remarked. "What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good question." The Doctor furrowed his brow. "Actually, that is a good question." He grabbed him by the shoulders. "Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No," the latter shook his head. "I'm just a bit time sick."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No, you just need a bit of grub." The Doctor turned to one of the chefs. "Oi, mate - how much is a kronkburger?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Two credits twenty, sweetheart," the chef answered. "Now, join the queue."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Money. We need money." The Doctor nodded. "Let's use a cashpoint."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Attention all staff," a computerized voice announced. "All coverage of the Glasgow water riots being transferred five through nine."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor took us to a terminal in one of the walls and did something clever with his sonic screwdriver. It produced a plastic card which the Doctor handed to Adam. "There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How does it work?" Adam asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Go and find out!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Stop nagging me. The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris," he explained. "You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?" He frowned for a second, and Rose and I laughed. "Stop asking questions, go and do it." He waved him away. "Off you go, then. Your first date," he teased Rose after Adam had walked away. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're going to get a smack, you are." She pointed at the Doctor as she walked away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Hey," I called after her. "Grab me some food, please!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Got it!" she called back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I ran after the Doctor as he approached a pair of smartly dressed young women. "Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where I am?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I caught up to him. "Yeah, where are we?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Floor One Three Nine." The first woman motioned to the enormous numbers on one of the walls. "Could they write it any bigger?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Floor one three nine of what?" he asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Must've been a hell of a party." She looked between the two of us judgmentally. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're on Satellite Five." the second woman replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's Satellite Five?" I asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" the first woman asked in disbelief. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Look at us." The Doctor grinned. "We're stupid." I nodded in agreement. I had no clue what his plan was, but if he thought something was wrong, I was going to play along. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Hold on, wait a minute," the second woman said. "Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You've got us. Well done." He held up his psychic paper. "You're too clever for us."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good job," I added.</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We were warned about this in basic training," she reminded her coworker. "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right," the first woman nodded, "fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor five hundred, I'll do anything."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Why, what happens on Floor five hundred?" he asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The walls are made of gold," she answered. "And you should know, Mister Management. So, this is what we do." She took us over to a wall monitor. "Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead." She motioned to another monitor. "Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy-seven closed by sunspot activity." She showed us the third one. "And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good for him," I hummed. "Who knew immortality came in a package deal with a uterus?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor shot me a questioning look, and I shrugged minutely in response. I had no idea where that had come from. "I get it." he nodded to the women in understanding. "You broadcast the news."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We are the news," the first woman corrected him. "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere," she explained. "Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going through us."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All staff are reminded that the canteen area now operates a self-cleaning table system. Thank you!" the computer voice said. An alarm sounded, and everyone around us grabbed their things and started leaving. The vendors closed up shop.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We walked back to the main area, and the Doctor waved Rose and Adam over. "Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They came over, and Rose handed me a container of food. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In the newsroom, seven people were seated at an octagonal desk around a central chair with wires coming out of it. We stood to one side, observing, and I ate my kronkburger. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Now, everybody behave," the first woman from earlier told the other people. "We have a management inspection. How do you want it, by the book?" she asked the Doctor. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right from scratch, thanks," he answered all seriously, and I barely held back a chuckle. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot,- my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni," She turned to us. "That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Actually, it's the law," the second woman chimed in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." Cathica settled into the central chair. "And engage safety." The seven held their hands over palm print on the table in front of them. Lights started to come on around the room. Cathica clicked her fingers, and a portal opened in her forehead. The seven put their hands into the palm prints. "And three, two, and spike." A beam of light shone into her portal. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Compressed information, streaming into her," the Doctor helpfully explained what was going on to us. "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius," Rose said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it." He started walking around the room. "There's too much. Her head'd blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose and I followed. "So, what about all these people' round the edge?" she asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her, and they transmit six hundred channels," he continued. "Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I furrowed my brow. "This is wrong…"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose went back to Adam to check on him. "You all right?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can see her brain," he replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Do you want to get out?" she asked me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No." He shook his head. "No, this technology, it's amazing."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor finished his circle around the room. "This technology's wrong."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Trouble?" I asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, yeah."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suki pulled her hands away as if she had just received an electric shock. The other six lifted their hands, and the information beam shut down. Cathica's portal closed, and she blinked a couple of times.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come off it, Suki. I wasn't even halfway." She got up from the chair. "What was that for?" she asked her coworker. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sorry. It must've been a glitch," the latter answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Promotion," the computer voice said, and a wall lit up with the word. Everyone turned to look at it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on. This is it. Come on." Cathica muttered. "Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell." the computer announced. "Please proceed to Floor five hundred."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suki shot up to her feet. "I don't believe it. Floor five hundred."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How the hell did you manage that?" Cathica sounded so offended. "I'm above you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't know." Suki shook her head. "I just applied on the off chance, and they've said yes."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's so not fair." Cathica stomped her foot down. "I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's Floor five hundred?" Rose whispered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The walls are made of gold," I whispered back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We had escorted Suki to the elevator. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Cathica, I'm going to miss you." She hugged her friend. "Floor five hundred, thank you." She grinned at the Doctor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I didn't do anything," he protested. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, you're my lucky charm." She went to hug him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All right. I'll hug anyone." He hugged her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You too!" She hugged me next, and I chuckled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All staff are reminded that the sixteen forty break session has been shortened by ten minutes. Thank you," the computer announced.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting." Suki ran into the elevator. "I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" The door closed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good riddance," Cathica huffed and turned away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're talking like you'll never see her again," the Doctor remarked. "She's only going upstairs."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We won't." She shook her head. "Once you go to Floor five hundred, you never come back."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We walked back through the cafeteria. Adam was gone. Apparently, he needed some time alone to catch his breath.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Have you ever been up there?" The Doctor asked Cathica.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can't," she answered. "You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance," Cathica was saying, back in the newsroom. "Can't you give it a rest?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But you've never been to another floor?" The Doctor sat in the broadcast chair. "Not even one floor down?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." She turned to us. "You're not management, are you?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"At last. She's clever."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me." She raised her hands. "I don't know anything."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And you don't even ask?" I asked her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, why would I?" She shrugged.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're a journalist," he reminded her. "Why's all the crew human?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's that got to do with anything?" she asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"There's no aliens on board. Why?" he insisted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't know. No real reason," she answered. "They're not banned or anything."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then, where are they?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What threats?" I asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't know all of them." She shrugged dismissively. "Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled, so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see," she added. "Just lots of little reasons, that's all."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice," he summarized. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it, she defended. "We see everything."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can see better," he retorted. "This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's cutting edge," she argued.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's backwards." He had his arms crossed. "There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He turned to her. "It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The Great and Bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And how would you know?" Cathica challenged. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years," he explained. "When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Ninety-one years ago."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Outside a computer cabinet, the Doctor was using his sonic screwdriver on a pair of double doors.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off," Cathica warned him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Angel, tell her to button it."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You heard him," I told her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You can't just vandalize the place," she continued, and I rolled my eyes. "Someone's going to notice!" The doors opened, and the Doctor had fun making things go sput amongst the nest of wiring. "This is nothing to do with me." She threw her hands up in the air. "I'm going back to work."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Go on, then. See you!" He waved her away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can't just leave you, can I!" she exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down," Rose told her. "It's boiling. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine," Cathica said dismissively. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Something to do with the turbine," he mocked her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, I don't know!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Exactly. I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose." He motioned to her. "Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked up at him. "Oh, thank you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Why is it so hot?" he asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"One minute, you're worried about the Empire, and the next, it's the central heating!" Cathica groaned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Stop complaining and do something," I groaned in annoyance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." He produced a monitor with a schematic on it. "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core." She grabbed the monitor. "You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange, and you're looking at pipes?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But, there's something wrong." He nodded at it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I suppose." She took a good look at it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What is it," I asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The ventilation system," she answered. "Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channelling massive amounts of heat down."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All the way from the top," the Doctor added.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Floor five hundred," Rose said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor nodded. "Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?" Rose offered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You can't," Cathica protested. "You need a key."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here." The Doctor grabbed the monitor. "Here we go. Override two one five point nine."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How come it's given you the code?" She asked in indignation. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Someone up there likes me." He grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We ran to the elevator and got in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on. Come with us." Rose motioned for Cathica to get in with us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No way," she refused.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Bye!" The Doctor waved. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." She left.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's her gone. Adam's given up," he noted. "Looks like it's just us."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah." I grinned, and we took his hands.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good." He grinned at us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yep." Rose nodded, grinning as well.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The door opened to Floor five hundred. The air was freezing, and frost covered the walls. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The walls are not made of gold." The Doctor stepped out. "You should go back downstairs."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Tough." Rose got out as well.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I followed her. "Yeah, not happening."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We wandered around a bit and found a pale-skinned man with white hair and goatee watching a bunch of screens. Cold-looking people were sitting at a long desk in front of him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I started without you." the pale man said. "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three," He motioned to us, "you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Suki." Rose ran over to Suki, who was sitting at the desk with the others. "Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki? What have you done to her?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I think she's dead." The Doctor didn't even move as he said it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's working," she said, confused.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets," the Doctor explained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh!" the pale man exclaimed. "You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back because apparently, you're no one," he laughed. "It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you." The Doctor waved. "Come on." He went to walk away, but Suki grabbed Rose's arm while more zombies grabbed the Doctor and me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Tell me who you are," the pale man insisted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?" the Doctor sassed him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise," the pale man proposed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And who's that?" I asked in mock politeness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire." He clasped his hands together. "In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." Growls and snarls came from above us. "Yeah." The pale man nodded, listening to the growling like he understood it. "Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are </span>
  <em>
    <span>allowed</span>
  </em>
  <span> to live by kind permission of my client." He snapped his fingers and pointed to the ceiling. A giant lump was hanging from it, with a nasty set of teeth in a mouth that was just dangling from the primary blob.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What is that?" Rose asked, horrified. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" the Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race," the pale man answered. If the blob was Editor in Chief, that made Frosty Editor. "For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max." He whispered the last part to us in a conspiratory manner.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And so we were placed in hefty sets of manacles. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Create a climate of fear, and it's easy to keep the borders closed," the Editor was still delivering exposition. "It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So all the people on Earth are like, slaves," Rose summarised. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?" the Editor asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes," the Doctor simply answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?" the Editor mocked the Doctor's tone. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes," the Doctor repeated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're no fun." The Editor mock pouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Let me out of these manacles," the Doctor spat. "You'll find out how much fun I am."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, he's tough, isn't he" the Editor chuckled. "But come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You can't hide something on this scale, Rose argued. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah." I nodded. "Somebody must have noticed."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"From time to time, someone, yes," the Editor agreed, "but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it." He made a crushing motion with his fist. "Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle," he chuckled. "In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I noticed Cathica was standing in the doorframe, on the other side of the room from us. I could tell Rose, and the Doctor had seen her as well, but the Editor thankfully hadn't.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What about you?" Rose asked. "You're not a Jagra… belly…"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Jagrafess," the Doctor corrected her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Jagrafess." She nodded. "You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well." The Editor's tone was condescending. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But you couldn't have done this all on your own," she said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No. I represent a consortium of banks," he explained. "Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to…" he whispered. "install himself."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No wonder, a creature that size," the Doctor scoffed. "What's his life span?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Three thousand years."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive." The next part was directed at Cathica. "Satellite Five is one great big life support system."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" The Editor snapped his fingers, and energy surged through the manacles, making me scream in pain.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Leave them alone!" the Doctor begged. "I'm the Doctor, she's Rose Tyler, and they're the Grey Angel!. We're nothing, we're just wandering."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Tell me who you are!" the Editor pressed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I just said!" the Doctor yelled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly--" the Editor stopped as the Jagrafress growled. "Time Lord." the Editor said, and the pain stopped. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What?" the Doctor asked, suddenly very concerned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, yes," the Editor continued. "The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago and his amnesiac."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor tried to argue.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Time travel." The Editor grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Someone's been telling you lies," the Doctor kept trying, and my mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Young master Adam Mitchell?" The Editor snapped his fingers and called up a holographic screen showing Adam in the broadcast chair.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, my God. His head!" Rose shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done?" The Doctor was panicking now. "They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything!!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And through him, I know everything about you," the Editor said. "Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S. Tardis."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first," the Doctor screamed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." The Editor motioned to the screen, where we could see the Tardis key rise from Adam's pocket.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You and your boyfriends!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't put this on her!" I shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing," the Editor was going full supervillain monologue.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie," the Doctor was looking at the Editor, but he was talking to Cathica. "They'll just trot right into the slaughterhouse if they're told it's made of gold." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Jagrafess snarled, and Cathica left. It didn't take her too much time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's happening?" the Editor asked the zombies as Adam was disconnected, and the Tardis key fell. "Someone's disengaged the safety. Who's that?" He called up another image on the holo-screen.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's Cathica!" I exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And she's thinking." The Doctor grinned proudly. "She's using what she knows."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Terminate her access," the Editor ordered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Everything I told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that." The Doctor nodded to the ceiling, where the icicles were starting to melt. "It's getting hot."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Editor growled at the dead Suki. "I said, terminate. Burn out her mind." The consoles exploded, and the dead operators collapsed. Rose somehow got out of her manacles.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool, and now it's sitting on top of a volcano," the Doctor explained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it," the Editor was pleading with his boss. "It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea." he laughed at the mere notion, then took Suki's seat. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose grabbed the sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's pocket. "What do I do??"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Flick the switch!" he instructed. "Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty?" he taunted the Editor. "Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finally free, we ran to the broadcast room Cathica was in. The Doctor snapped his finger and closed her portal. Then, we got the hell out of there as the Jagrafess exploded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The people on level 139 were helping the injured, and we were sitting in the cafeteria. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We're just going to go," the Doctor told Cathica. "I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You'll have to stay and explain it," she protested. "No one's going to believe me."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal," he assured her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What about your friend?" She nodded towards Adam, who was by the Tardis. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"He's not my friend." The Doctor got up and walked to Adam. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Now, don't--" Rose started, following him. I waved at Cathica and went after them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm all right now. Much better," Adam chuckled nervously. "And I've got the key." He held it up. "Look, it's… It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge." The Doctor pushed him into the Tardis, and when we landed, he pushed him right out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I waited inside, I didn't want to see it. A few minutes later, the Doctor and Rose walked back in. No Adam. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Too bad, so sad. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I'd been waiting for a moment alone with the Doctor, so I could tell him about the weird stuff that was happening to me, but it hadn't really been easy. That was a lie. There had been more than enough moments to bring up my concerns. Yes, we did a lot of running, but there was plenty of downtime. I had just been too nervous to bring up my concerns, and when I would finally work up the courage, something would come up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eventually, I caught him alone, at a time where I had psyched myself up enough to tell him what was up. I'm pretty sure the Tardis had had a hand in it because I was just wandering around the halls, looking for the Doctor, and I ended up somewhere I hadn't before. A door was slightly ajar, and I could hear him talking to himself. I took a deep breath and knocked on the doorframe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were a couple of seconds of deafening silence before he answered. "Yes?" He opened the door, blocking the view of the room with his body. He wasn't wearing his jacket, and, honestly, he looked kind of naked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I um…" I hesitated, my doubts bubbling back to the surface. "I need to talk to you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right, one moment." He went back inside, shutting the door. I heard some muffled noises, and I'm pretty sure what was him banging his foot on something. He opened the door again. "Come on in." He stepped aside to let me in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I walked into the room and glanced around. It was an office. There was a desk against the far wall, shelves lining the sides and a coat hanger by the door. A very, very long scarf was hanging from it, and the shelves were full of various trinkets. He sat in the chair by the desk and motioned for me to sit in an armchair. I did and then proceeded to fidget with the hem of my shirt nervously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right…" I cleared my throat. "Something's been happening to me," I started. Despite how many times I had had this conversation in my head, I still struggled to find the right words. "I've been having some weird flashbacks, and I started feeling what other people feel, but not all the time, it's like coming and going, and I don't know how to turn it on, and I also knew you were talking about the Time War, after we went to see the Earth burn and you were talking about your people and when you were first talking to the Dalek, I saw Gallifrey burn and I felt them all burn and I don't know what to make of any of this and---" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Okay, okay, okay, breathe," he stopped me and took my hand in his. "Breathe," he repeated and only then did I catch my breath. I realized my cheeks were wet, I hadn't noticed I was crying. "Good. Again." I took a deep breath, and he nodded. "Let's start from the beginning. You say this started after Platform 1?"  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I sniffled, and he handed me a tissue. "Thanks. Yeah." I wiped my face. "You said there had been a war and I heard a voice in my head say: 'Time War.' Then, Rose asked you who with, and I heard: 'Everyone."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then what?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I Cardiff, I could feel in my gut that something was wrong with the Gelth. And I knew you felt personally responsible for their situation and that you felt guilty. I don't know how, I just did…" He squeezed my hand and nodded for me to go on. "It didn't happen again until the Dalek. You walked in there, and I could feel it's hatred. I could feel your pain and your fear and your sorrow," I sobbed. "Doctor, I'm so sorry. They burned, I felt it, and I heard them scream… I'm so sorry…" I wiped more tears. "I'm so sorry, Doctor."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You saw it?" he asked in a shaky voice. I replied with a nod, and he pulled me close. "I'm sorry." He kissed the top of my head. "I'm so sorry, no one should ever have to see that…" I felt warm tears hit my hair, and I held him tight. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I was overwhelmed by his pain and sorrow, and I knew he knew I could feel it. I don't know how long we spent like this, in this weird connection. We cried in each other's arms, the silence only interrupted by our sobs until we had no more tears. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What am I, Doctor?" I spoke after a long time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Something new," he answered softly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I parted enough to be able to look up at him. "I need to know what happened to me."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He nodded. "There might be a way, but I can't guarantee it'll work. There might be an excellent reason you can't remember, that's why I didn't bring it up before."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I need to know," I repeated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Lean back," he instructed, and I did as I was told. He placed his fingers on my temples. "Close your eyes." I did so. "I'm going to look inside your mind. If there's a block, I'll try to remove it, got it?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Got it." I sensed his hesitation. "I trust you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I felt him walk through my mind, through my memories, and then, I saw him. We were standing together in a corridor of doors. I walked with him, and we went all the way to the last door. It was the moment we met. He tried to push further, and we were stopped by a wall of dark energy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"This is it," he said in my mind. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How do we do this?" I asked, hesitantly placing a hand on the wall.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You have to let us in," he answered. "Are you sure."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes. I need to know," I repeated. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then do it."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I took a deep breath and tried to push past the wall. It, however, was not having any of my nonsense. "It's not working," I groaned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I said to let us in," he reminded me, "not fight our way in."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I sighed and stopped pushing. "Alright." I squared my shoulders and stared at the wall, willing it to disappear. The Doctor took my hand and gave me the boost I needed. A door started to appear on the wall.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's it," he encouraged. "Keep going."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I kept focusing on it, and eventually, the door became tangible. I grabbed the handle and turned it. Immediately, my mind was flooded by memories, and I started screaming. The Doctor was abruptly ejected from my mind and physically recoiled, back in the real world. I held my head in pain at the onslaught of information. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose barged in just as the headache was subsiding. "What happened?? Are you alright??" She rushed over to me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We got their memories back," the Doctor answered for me and handed me a glass of water. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I took it gratefully, not caring where he'd gotten it from. "It was just a lot…" I mumbled and took a sip of the water. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right." She sat on my chair's arm. "Well, take your time."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> I drank more water. "I can tell you how I got here. I was with the Doctor in my universe," I started. "We were travelling, and we got in trouble."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Not much different from here, then," Rose chuckled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Except this time, it was more trouble than we'd ever been in. Millions of lives were at stake, and the Doctor had a plan to save them, but it went wrong…" I sighed. "She was going to die, and she sent me back home, in the Tardis, to save me…"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She?" Rose and the Doctor asked at the same time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I nodded. "Yeah." The two of them exchanged glances. "Anyway, I couldn't just stand there and let her die, so I pulled a--" I stopped myself, realizing that hadn't happened yet, for them. "I copied a move from the TV show, Doctor Who. It was stupid and brave and reckless and amazing."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then what happened?" the Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I saved the Doctor and everyone else, but it had consequences," I explained. "It opened up a rift, and I got sucked in."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Blimey," Rose sighed. "What was the move?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Doesn't matter now," I answered, maybe a bit too quickly. "I don't regret it, though. She's alive because of it, and that's all that matters."</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Dances</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>We were chasing an alien spacecraft's emergency signal through time and space, to London during the Blitz. Since we couldn't very well leave alien stuff lying around in the past, we decided to retrieve it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>While the Doctor chose to simply ask around, Rose, in the fine old tradition of the Doctor's companions, wandered off and got herself into trouble. She'd heard a small child calling for his mother, and of course, she ran to save him and, of course, I went with her. We climbed a rope to get to him and actually grabbed hold of a barrage balloon, accidentally taking to the skies above London while it's being bombed, with her wearing a T-shirt with a giant British flag on it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We were rescued by a suave spaceship pilot with an American accent, an RAF uniform and a penchant for flirting with his fellow soldiers. He introduced himself as Captain Jack Harkness. Captain Jack deduced that we were also a time traveller and, assuming that we were Time Agents, told us of a recently crashed alien ship, whose location he would reveal for the right price. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Oh, and he (quite successfully) tried to seduce her — by taking her for a slow dance on the roof of his invisible ship, which was anchored to the top of Big Ben.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Anyway, we found the Doctor in a hospital, getting there just in time for a bunch of gas-mask people to all rise up from their beds and close in on us. We desperately tried to escape them and figure out what the hell was going on. I barely remembered anything about this episode, from when I had watched it, back in my original universe. I wasn't much help on the foresight front, but I still pulled my weight. Also, I may have called Jack an asshole. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>While Jack teleported away, we were trapped for a while, and Rose took the opportunity to ask the Doctor if he could dance like Jack can. The Doctor was a bit offended and said he's actually got quite a lot of experience with... dancing. Rose really couldn't picture him... dancing. That was one interesting/awkward conversation, from my third wheel perspective. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Anyway, the Doctor stepped closer and took her hands for an intense... dance, but they fail to look around and realize that Jack had rescued us. Jack wasn't exactly with the Time Police anymore; he had turned rogue after waking up one morning and finding that his employer had been wiped two years of his memory.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jack went off to distract a gay crash site guard with his suave, omnisexual allure, and the Doctor explained to Rose that Jack was, quote, "just a bit more flexible when it comes to... dancing". In Jack's century, people will travel the whole universe to find aliens of all sexes and genders, and... dance with them. I pointed out that I wasn't from the 51st century, and I was just as flexible with… dancing. Meanwhile, the virus became airborne, and everyone around the warship crash site started mutating.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Seeing the crash site, the Doctor figured it out: the Chula warship was a field ambulance, and contained nanogenes for expedient battlefield healing. When Jamie, the little gas mask boy, was first hit by the ship, the nanogenes swung into action and tried to fix him... but they'd never interacted with humans before, and so derived their idea of what humans looked like from a severely wounded kid in a gas mask. They sort of made it up as they went along — assuming that fully healed people wore gas masks, they made the people they "infected" sprout gas masks. But when they finally met Nancy, Jamie's mother, they had a different model of a healthy human being to work towards... and the parent/child relationship between the subjects meant that the nanogenes knew that this pattern was the right one.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everybody lived as the Doctor re-infected everyone with the nanogenes, who now knew how to fix humans. Even previously dead humans. Hooray! Jack used his Chula ship to suspend the bomb that was supposed to blow up in the location the Chula ambulance crashed. He flew off into space after saying goodbye. The Doctor decided the evidence of an alien race needed to be wiped out to keep history sterile. He made the Chula ambulance self-destruct when the area was clear of people, reasoning, "History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?" with Rose replying, "Usually the first in line."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose and the Doctor were dancing as I opened the Tardis doors to the interior of Jack's ship.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Hurry up!" I called out to him, and he ran in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Okay. And right and turn," Rose instructed the Doctor, who very awkwardly and inefficiently did so. "Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." The Doctor frowned and turned to Jack. "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught." Jack did as he was told, and the Doctor got us in flight. "Welcome to the Tardis."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Much bigger on the inside." Jack looked around the console room, and the look on his face made me chuckle. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You'd better be," the Doctor sassed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in," Rose translated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Rose!" the Doctor cried out. "I've just remembered!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What?" She turned to him as the music changed from waltz to swing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can dance! I can dance!" he exclaimed, dancing a lot better. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Actually, Doctor," Rose said. "I thought Jack might like this dance."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" The Doctor grinned and pulled her into a dance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"</span>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck it</span>
  </em>
  <span>," I thought to myself and held out my hand to Jack. "May I have this dance?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I raised an eyebrow at me. "I thought I was an asshole?" But he took my hand anyway and pulled me close. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can't change my mind?" I teased, smirking. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I never said that." He smirked back. "Do you want to lead, or should I?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You lead," I replied, and we started dancing. "I should probably introduce myself properly."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You mean, come out?" He made me spin on the spot, then dipped me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I chuckled breathlessly. "Gods, I've missed being around queer people." He chuckled with me and lifted me back up. "I'm the Grey Angel," I started. "That didn't use to be my name, but it is now." He spun me again. "I'm genderfluid and pansexual, and I'm so glad I don't have to explain what that means to you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Pleasure to meet you properly." His smile did things to me, but that was nothing compared to when he pulled me in even tighter and leaned in close to whisper in my ear. "I've got a feeling you're not as much as a third wheel as you think you are." And he dipped me again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After days and days of pleading and begging the Doctor, he finally, finally got us some tickets to Hamilton. Not just tickets, the best seats on the house. Not only Hamilton, the premiere with Lin Manuel Miranda. I was ecstatic as we made our way out of the Tardis and to our seats. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I just don't see how a musical about one of America's Founding Fathers could be all that good," Rose was saying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But this is by Lin Manuel Miranda!" Jack explained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah!" I agreed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The man is a legend in the world of theatre," Jack added. "Even in the 51st century."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose looked to the Doctor for confirmation, and he nodded. "It's true."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"He made musicals cool again!" I exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, alright," she laughed. "I believe you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We got to our seats, and the Doctor sat to the right of Rose while I sat between Rose and Jack. We all laughed when King George made his announcement, before the beginning of the show. The first song started, and I was dancing in my seat. I couldn't help but mouth along with every song, but I refrained from singing aloud. When King George came onstage for the first time, Rose laughed out. I mean, the whole audience laughed, myself included, but her laugh was clearest to me. I looked at her, grinning, and a little voice in the back of my head said: </span>
  <em>
    <span>uh oh</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I didn't know what it meant just yet, or maybe I didn't want to know. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Between two of the songs, she leaned over and whispered. "You were right, this is brilliant." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then, at one point, I caught myself looking at her. She noticed it, and our eyes met, and I got it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I was in love with Rose Tyler. At that moment that lasted forever, I felt so helpless. I was looking into her eyes, and I knew the sky was the limit. I was down for the count, I was drowning in 'em. And that was the song being sung on stage, and it may have felt like a cliché, but I didn't give a fuck. And just like that, the moment was over, and we were focusing on the stage again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We all held hands during 'It's Quiet Uptown.' The Doctor provided tissues as the four of us cried our eyes out. No matter how many times I had listened to it before, that song always broke me. Fuck you, Lin Manuel Miranda, you and your brilliant writing. Eventually, the show ended, and we got up for a standing ovation. Jack even whistled at the cast. We made our way back to the Tardis, chatting about the play, and as I watched the Doctor and Rose talk, I remembered Doctor Who and my heart sank. How could I ever stand up to what they had?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I was looking at my Doctor, more power than could be described in words while I destroyed the forces threatening an entire planet with a mere thought. I burned bright with the light of a thousand suns, and I could feel the turn of the universe. I saw what was, what could be and what should never be, all at once. The danger was gone, but I kept burning, I couldn't let go. The Doctor carefully walked over to me, tears blurring my vision, and she hugged me close. As she took all the power of time and space out of me and into herself, the fabric of reality ripped open and pulled me through the rift.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"DOCTOR!!" I screamed, sitting up in my bed, tears streaming down my cheeks. I felt the Tardis reach out to my mind and give me the equivalent of a hug while broken sobs racked through my body. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It didn't take long for the Doctor to rush into my room, but it wasn't </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and it felt like a punch to the gut. He just held me quietly for gods know how long, until my tears subsided. He kept holding me long after I had stopped crying. He didn't ask, somehow I knew he didn't need to. We lay in each other's arms, forehead to forehead, and as I fell asleep, I felt our minds connect. I had no more nightmares for the rest of the night.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Someone knocked on the Tardis door, and Jack answered. "Who the hell are you?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What do you mean, who the hell am I?" a voice replied. "Who the hell are you?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you're selling, we're not buying."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Get out of my way!" Mickey pushed past Jack and into the Tardis. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't tell me," Jack deadpanned. "This must be Mickey."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Here comes trouble!" the Doctor warned playfully. "How're you doing, Ricky boy?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's Mickey!" Mickey shouted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't listen to him," Rose walked over, "he's winding you up."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You look fantastic." He grinned, and they hugged.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Aw, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?" Jacked asked the Doctor, who was up on a ladder, fixing something. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Buy me a drink first," he answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're such hard work," Jack mock complained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But worth it." The Doctor smiled smugly. I laughed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Did you manage to find it?" Rose asked Mickey.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"There you go." He handed her her passport.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can go anywhere now." She grinned, holding it up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I told you, you don't need a passport," the Doctor reminded her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's all very well going to Platform One and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil?" she asked. "I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sounds like you're staying, then. So, what're you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash?" He nodded to Jack. "I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with big-ears up there--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oi!" the Doctor exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Look in the mirror," Mickey called out. "And Grey cause they're not a bloke." He nodded at me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sometimes!" I reminded him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right. But this guy." He motioned to Jack. I don't know, he's kind of--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Handsome?" Jack interrupted him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"More like cheesy," Mickey retorted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Early twenty-first Century slang." Jack put his hands on his hips. "Is cheesy good or bad?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's bad," Mickey answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But bad means good, isn't that right?" Jack grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Are you saying I'm not handsome?" the Doctor asked, coming off the ladder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You are handsome," I reassured him, and he flashed me a grin.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We just stopped off. We need to refuel. The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city," Rose explained. "It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The rift was healed back in 1869," I added.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth, because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway, but she saved the world and closed it," Rose supplied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But closing a rift always leaves a scar, and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race," Jack continued.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But perfect for the Tardis," the Doctor said, "so just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar and--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation," Jack explained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!" Rose exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Into time!" Jack added. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor, Jack, Rose and I all high fived and shouted together. "And space!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"My God, have you seen yourselves?" Mickey was so unimpressed. "You all think you're so clever, don't you?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah," the Doctor answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah." Rose nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yup!" I grinned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yep!" Jack replied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Outside, the Doctor was locking up the Tardis. "Should take another twenty-four hours, which means we've got time to kill."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mickey was looking around uncomfortably. "That old lady's staring."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box," Jack chuckled. I snorted and wiggled my eyebrows at him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What are you captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" Mickey asked. Jack made a gesture I assumed was the 51st century equivalent of the bird and started to walk away. "Wait, the Tardis, we can't just leave it," he called out. "Doesn't it get noticed?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah," Jack turned back, "what's with the police box? Why does it look like that?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's a cloaking device," Rose answered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's called a chameleon circuit." The Doctor looked so proud. "The Tardis is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So, it copied a real thing?" Mickey asked. "There actually were police boxes?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, on street corners." The Doctor nodded. "Phone for help before they had radios and mobiles. If they arrested someone, they could shove them inside till help came, like a little prison cell."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I like it, don't you?" the Doctor countered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I love it." Rose grinned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Best she's ever looked," I agreed, patting the door. I was rewarded by a wave of happiness from the Tardis. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But that's what I meant," Mickey laughed. "There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race." The Doctor grabbed him by the shoulders. "You put a mysterious blue box slap-bang in the middle of town, what do they do?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Walk past it. Now, stop your nagging. Let's go and explore."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's the plan?" I asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't know." The Doctor grabbed Rose by the arm, and we started walking away from the Tardis. "Cardiff, early twenty-first century and the wind's coming from the east. Trust me. Safest place in the universe."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cut to later, after night had fallen and we'd captured Margaret the Slitheen. "This ship is impossible," she was saying. "It's superb. How do you get the outside around the inside?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor scoffed. "Like I'd give you the secret, yeah."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I almost feel better about being defeated," Margaret kept going. "I never stood a chance. This is the technology of the gods."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't worship me," the Doctor replied. "I'd make a very bad god. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters." He looked at Jack. "Jack, how we doing, big fella?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"This extrapolator's top of the range," he answered and turned to the Slitheen. "Where did you get it?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, I don't know. Some airlock sale?" She shrugged.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Must've been a great big heist," Jack retorted. "It's stacked with power."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But we can use it for fuel?" the Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's not compatible, but it should knock off about twelve hours," Jack informed us. "We'll be ready to go by morning."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then we're stuck here overnight," the Doctor stated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm in no hurry." Margaret took the seat I usually occupied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We've got a prisoner," Rose beamed. "The police box is really a police box."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're not just police, though. Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners," Margaret said. "Each and every one of you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, you deserve it," Mickey snapped. I just stayed quiet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're very quick to say so. You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me, how, exactly?" She looked at all of us. "Long night ahead. Let's see who can look me in the eye." None of us were able to, and an uncomfortable silence fell inside the console room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mickey and Rose, as well as Margaret and the Doctor, had gone out on separate dinners, leaving me alone in the Tardis with Jack. I sat next to him on the floor as he kept working with the extrapolator.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I would have taken you out, too, if I weren't busy with this." He shot me a grin.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I chuckled. "I'm good, don't worry."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You don't need to let me down easy," he teased. "I know I'm not your type."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're everyone's type," I replied, maybe a bit too quickly. He glanced at me, unimpressed. "You know what I mean…" I muttered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Uh huh." He kept working on his task. "I have to say, though, you couldn't have picked better than them," he chuckled, but I felt his hurt, just for a moment. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everything was going crazy, and I felt more than I heard the Tardis screaming in pain. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor barged in, Margaret in tow. "What the hell are you doing??" he shouted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It just went crazy!" Jack and I answered at the same time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's the rift. Time and space are ripping apart," the Doctor realized. "The whole city's going to disappear!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's the extrapolator," Jack explained. "I've disconnected it, but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the Tardis. I can't stop it!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Never mind Cardiff, it's going to rip open the planet!" I exclaimed. I could feel it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose ran in. "What is it? What's happening?!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, just little me." Margaret took an arm out of her bodysuit and grabbed Rose by the neck. I instinctively made to move toward them. "One wrong move, and she snaps like a promise."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I might've known," the Doctor groaned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby," She rolled her eyes, "now shut it. You, flyboy, put the extrapolator at my feet." Margaret tightened her grip on Rose's neck when Jack made a move. The Doctor nodded at him, and he obeyed. "Thank you. Just as I planned."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station," I said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own," Margaret was bragging now. "Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor," she spat his name. "So the extrapolator was programmed to go to plan B. To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found." She motioned to the Tardis with her free arm. "I'm back on schedule, thanks to you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The rift's going to convulse. You'll destroy the whole plane!" Jack exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And you with it!" She stood on the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back, boys. Surf's up." I was going to point out I wasn't a guy, but the Tardis console cracked open and a familiar (to me) bright light hit Margaret.</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Of course, opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart." The Doctor had the upper hand again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So sue me," she hissed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's not just any old power source. It's the Tardis. My Tardis," he explained. "The best ship in the universe."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It'll make wonderful scrap."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's that light?" Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The heart of the Tardis." He didn't take his eyes off of Margaret. "This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's so bright," the Slitheen said, in awe.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Look at it, Margaret," he encouraged. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Beautiful."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Margaret relaxed, and Rose got free. Then she looked up at the Doctor, smiling. "Thank you," she murmured. She disappeared into the light, the empty body suit crumpling onto the extrapolator.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't look," the Doctor instructed us. "Stay there. Close your eyes!" He ran over and closed the console. "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down. Shut down!" he yelled. "Angel, that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right." We did as we were told and the Tardis stopped being in pain. "Nicely done. Thank you, all," he panted softly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Must've got burnt up," Jack surmised. "Carried out her own death sentence."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No," The Doctor shook his head. "I don't think she's dead."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then where'd she go?" she asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She looked into the heart of the Tardis. Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic, like I told you, Rose." He crouched down next to the empty bodysuit. "Gets inside your head. Translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts." He pulled a weird, alien-looking egg out of it. "Here she is." He grinned. We all crouched down with him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's an egg?" Rose looked bewildered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Regressed to her childhood," he agreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's an egg?" Jack repeated, and I laughed softly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She can start again. Live her life from scratch." The Doctor got up. "If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Or she might be worse," I hummed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's her choice," the Doctor replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's an egg," Rose said once more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's an egg." The Doctor put it on the console. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, my God. Mickey." Rose ran out of the Tardis. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She came back alone, and I noticed the tears in her eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We're all powered up. We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy." The Doctor turned to her, and I think he noticed them too. "We can go, if that's all right."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, fine," she answered, noncommittal. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How's Mickey?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"He's okay. He's gone." Her voice shook, and I could tell she was trying to convince herself, too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Do you want to go and find him? We'll wait," the Doctor offered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She shook her head. "No need. He deserves better."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Off we go, then. Always moving on." The Doctor focused on the console. I went over to Rose, and I gently took her hand in mine. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius," Jack announced, probably attempting to quell the room's awkwardness. "Now, you don't often get to say that."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery." The Doctor got us flying. "Margaret, the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That'd be nice," Rose murmured and squeezed my hand. </span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Ends and Beginnings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's not everyday one gets to bust their way out of a deadly game show. It's not everyday one watches someone they love get disintegrated, right in front of them. It's not everyday one faces off against an army of half a million Daleks. And it's not everyday, not even by the Doctor's side, that one feels the hatred of an army of mad Daleks and the fear and pain of hundreds of people dying. </p><p> </p><p>Rose was gone, safe at home. Jack was dead, killed by a Dalek. The Doctor radiated so much pain and fear that I could barely stay upright. Everything was at its worst as the Doctor madly fumbled to get the Delta Wave ready to kill all the Daleks, but us and all of Earth with them. </p><p> </p><p>With some difficulty, I walked over to the Doctor and took his hand, grabbing his attention. "Grey Angel," I started, as the sound of wheezing and groaning filled the room. "Those were my words. 'Bad Wolf' are hers." </p><p> </p><p>We turned to see the Tardis doors open, Rose standing between them, silhouetted in blinding gold light. Tendrils of golden energy snaked outwards, and I heard the Tardis sing.</p><p> </p><p>"What've you done?" the Doctor shouted. </p><p> </p><p>"I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me," she answered, but her voice wasn't entirely her own. </p><p> </p><p>"You looked into the Time Vortex," he corrected her. "Rose, no one's meant to see that."</p><p> </p><p>"This is the Abomination!" I heard the Dalek Emperor cry out. </p><p> </p><p>"Exterminate!" A Dalek exclaimed. </p><p> </p><p>Rose quickly stopped the attack. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself," she explained. "I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here." I felt a wave of energy as she did that.</p><p> </p><p>"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now," the Doctor begged her. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."</p><p> </p><p>"I want you safe," she sobbed. "My Doctor. Protected from the false god."</p><p> </p><p>"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal," the Emperor screamed at her. </p><p> </p><p>"You are tiny," she retorted. "I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence and I divide them." And I felt every Dalek die at her hand. "Everything must come to dust—all things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."</p><p> </p><p>"Rose, you've done it." The Doctor ran to her. I just stayed where I was. "Now stop. Just let go."</p><p> </p><p>"How can I let go of this? I bring life." I felt her resurrect Jack. </p><p> </p><p>"But this is wrong! You can't control life and death," the Doctor pleaded. </p><p> </p><p>"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"</p><p> </p><p>"The power's going to kill you, and it's my fault," he sobbed. </p><p> </p><p>"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be," she said. </p><p> </p><p>"That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?" The Doctor took her hands in his, and I made my way over to them, then into the Tardis. </p><p> </p><p>"My head," she cried out in pain.</p><p> </p><p>"Come here." He pulled her close. </p><p> </p><p>"It's killing me."</p><p> </p><p>"I think you need a Doctor." I saw the golden energy fly past me and back into the console, and the doors closed.</p><p> </p><p>*****</p><p> </p><p>"What happened?" Rose sat up on the Tardis floor, holding her head in pain. </p><p> </p><p>"Don't you remember?" the Doctor asked, flying the Tardis.</p><p> </p><p>"It's like there was this singing…" she trailed off, and I helped her up. "Thanks."</p><p> </p><p>"That's right. I sang a song, and the Daleks ran away." He grinned. </p><p> </p><p>"I was at home. No, I wasn't, I was in the Tardis, and there was this light." She shook her head. "I can't remember anything else."</p><p> </p><p>The Doctor's skin started darkening, and he looked at us mournfully. "Rose Tyler. Grey Angel. I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona," he specified. "You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny," he laughed. </p><p> </p><p>"Then, why can't we go?" she asked, and I held her hand tight.</p><p> </p><p>"Maybe you will, and maybe I will. But not like this." He shook his head. </p><p> </p><p>"You're not making sense."</p><p> </p><p>"I might never make sense again," he scoffed. "I might have two heads or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process," he explained. "You never know what you're going to end up with." He doubled over in pain, and I winced as I felt it. </p><p> </p><p>"Doctor!" Rose screamed and tried to go to him, but I held her back. </p><p> </p><p>"Stay away!" he shouted.</p><p> </p><p>"Doctor, tell me what's going on," she demanded. </p><p> </p><p>"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that," he chuckled bitterly. "Every cell in my body's dying."</p><p> </p><p>"Can't you do something? The way she said it broke my heart. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face," he explained.  </p><p> </p><p>"Goodbye," my voice broke as I said it. </p><p> </p><p>He nodded at me. "And before I go--" he started.</p><p> </p><p>"Don't say that," she interrupted him. </p><p> </p><p>Rose, Angel, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic." He grinned. "Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I." Golden light burst out of his body as he violently regenerated. Everything changed very suddenly, and the next Doctor was standing there. "Hello. Okay. Ooo, new teeth." He frowned. "That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona," he beamed. </p><p> </p><p>*****</p><p> </p><p>The new Doctor dashed to the console and flicked a few switches, checking the monitor while Rose watched from behind a pillar. "6 PM... Tuesday…" He turned a knob. "October... 5006... On the way to Barcelona!" He straightened up suddenly and faced us, grinning like he was extremely pleased with himself. "Now then... what do I look like?" He didn't give us a chance to reply before holding up a hand to silence us. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Don't tell me. Let's see... two legs, two arms, two hands…" He tested his wrist, making circle motions with it. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." His hands flew to his hair. "Hair! I'm not bald!" I coughed out a laugh as he ran his hands through his hair gleefully. "Oh, Oh! Big hair!" He felt his sideburns, looking and sounding delighted. "Sideburns, I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin. Little bit thinner…" He slapped his stomach. "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it. I... have got... a mole. I can feel it," he said like it was the most beautiful discovery of his entire life. Rose moved closer and kind of hid behind me like he was dangerous, and I could protect her from him. He didn't seem to notice her fear. "Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole." He rolled his shoulders. "That's all right. Love the mole." He grinned at us. "Go on, then, tell me." He stood up straight, ready for assessment. "What do you think?"</p><p> </p><p>"Who are you?" she asked quietly and timidly. </p><p> </p><p>He looked crestfallen and slightly surprised. "I'm the Doctor."</p><p> </p><p>"No... Where is he? Where's the Doctor?" She raised her voice. "What have you done to him?"</p><p> </p><p>"You saw me, I, I changed... He indicates over his shoulder, the spot where he regenerated. "... right in front of you."</p><p> </p><p>"I saw him sort of explode, and then you replaced him, like a... a teleport or a transmat or a body swap or something," she startled rambling. </p><p> </p><p>I turned to face her and slowly, carefully grabbed her hands, worried I might spook her. "It's him, Rose. I promised you. He's the Doctor."</p><p> </p><p>"Rose, it's me," he said pleadingly, leaning closer to us. "Honestly, it's me." She stared at him over my shoulder. "I was dying. To save my own life, I changed my body. Every single cell, but... it's still me."</p><p> </p><p>"You can't be," she whispered. "He can't be." </p><p> </p><p>I stepped aside, keeping hold of one of her hands. The Doctor took a few steps closer, looking straight down into her eyes. "Then how could I remember this? Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies... Oh…" He looked away for a moment, reminiscing. Then he looked back into her eyes "...such a long time ago. I took your hand…" He took her free hand. Rose glanced briefly down at their joint hands and then back up at his face. "I said one word... just one word, I said... 'Run.'"</p><p> </p><p>"Doctor," she whispered, and I sighed in relief. </p><p> </p><p>He grinned and spoke gently. "Hello." Rose sighed in an almost exasperated fashion and stumbled backwards as the impact of what just happened hit her. The Doctor took off around the other side of the console. "And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running…" He flicked a few switches. Boy, this was a talkative Doctor. "One time, we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives." He hopped madly up and down on the spot. Rose now had her back against the pillar, just watching him. "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah?! Hop? With the…" His enthusiasm ebbed a little at our lack of reaction, and he stopped hopping. "No?" I couldn't speak, I just didn't know what to say. </p><p> </p><p>"Can you change back?" she asked. </p><p> </p><p>"Do you want me to?"</p><p> </p><p>"Yeah."</p><p> </p><p>"Oh."</p><p> </p><p>"Can you?"</p><p> </p><p>"No." He seemed disappointed and glanced briefly down at the floor. "Do you want to leave?"</p><p> </p><p>"Do you want me to leave?" she asked, shocked. </p><p> </p><p>"No!" he answered quickly. "But... your choice... if you want to go home…" He went to the console again. "Cancel Barcelona. Change to... London... the Powell Estate... ah... let's say the 24th of December." He looked at her. "Consider it a Christmas present." She edged slowly closer to the console. "There." He stepped back, his arms tucked under his armpits in an almost defensive manner. </p><p> </p><p>Rose looked at him, then back at the console. The Tardis shuddered as she changed course. "I'm going home?" Rose asked. </p><p> </p><p>"Up to you. Back to your mum... it's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast... no, Christmas! Turkey! Although... having met your mother... nut loaf would be more appropriate." Rose looked down quickly to hide a smile, and I grinned. "Was that a smile?"</p><p> </p><p>"No," she denied it. </p><p> </p><p>"That was a smile…" I confirmed. </p><p> </p><p>"No, it wasn't," she muttered. </p><p> </p><p>"You smiled…" he teased. </p><p> </p><p>"No, I didn't."</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, come on, all I did was change, I didn't…" He suddenly gagged as the Tardis shuddered. </p><p> </p><p>"What?" Rose frowned. </p><p> </p><p>"I said I didn't…" The same thing happened again, more violently, and he made nasty retching noises. "Uh oh."</p><p> </p><p>I rushed over to him, but Rose edged cautiously around the console. "Er... is you alright?" A wisp of golden energy issued from his mouth. "What's that?" she asked.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh... the change is going a bit wrong and all." He gagged again, and I caught him the best I could when he collapsed, his face contorted in pain. </p><p> </p><p>"Look... maybe we should go back," Rose suggested. "Let's go and find Captain Jack, he'd know what to do."</p><p> </p><p>"Gah, he's busy! He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!" he said impatiently. "I haven't used this one in years." He flicked a lever that caught his eye, and the Tardis shuddered violently, nearly knocking us off our feet. </p><p> </p><p>"What're you doing?!" I exclaimed. </p><p> </p><p>"Putting on a bit of speed! That's it!" he answered with a crazy expression. He kept turning more knobs as Rose, and I held onto the console for dear life. "My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl!" The Doctor looked and sounded violent, crazed. "Faster! Wanna break the time limit?!"</p><p> </p><p>"Stop it!" Rose shouted, both angry and scaredé </p><p> </p><p>"Ah, don't be so dull…" he told her, slightly nastily and still crazed. "Let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that vortex!" He caught my eye for a moment, and his voice calmed. "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself." He grimaced in pain. "Ah, my head…" He violently sprang up into standing position again, and his voice went back to being crazed. "Faster! Let's open those engines!" </p><p> </p><p>A bell started ringing, and Rose and I looked around, worried. "What's that?" we asked together. </p><p> </p><p>He was suddenly much closer to us. "We're gonna crash land!" he laughed maniacally. </p><p> </p><p>"Well then, do something!" she shouted over the sound of the bell. </p><p> </p><p>"Too late! Out of control!" His voice raised hysterically, and he ran around the console, giggling. "Oh, I love it! Hot dawg!" He hopped in the air excitedly. </p><p> </p><p>"You're gonna kill us!" I screamed. </p><p> </p><p>"Hold on tight, here we go!" He grinned madly at us, over the console. "Christmas Eve!"</p><p> </p><p>*****</p><p> </p><p>I sat on the steps of the spiral staircase, in the Tardis wardrobe while waiting for the Doctor to pick a new outfit, post Christmas invasion. I was wearing his old leather jacket, it smelled like he used to. I could hear him hum to himself as he looked through the rows of clothing racks. When he joined me, he was wearing his classic brown suit and trench coat, and he was grinning. </p><p> </p><p>I grinned in return. "Nice."</p><p> </p><p>"Isn't it?" He did a little spin, making me giggle, then he sat on the step where my feet were resting. "You really wanna keep that?" He nodded to the leather jacket.</p><p> </p><p>"Why not?" I looked at it. "It's a bit big for me, but I still like it." I shrugged.</p><p> </p><p>"Suit yourself." He shrugged and leaned back on his elbows. He tilted his head back, looking at me upside down.</p><p> </p><p>I giggled again. "You know," I started. "I've been meaning to tell you something."</p><p> </p><p>"I'm all ears." He was grinning like an idiot again.</p><p> </p><p>"You're my favourite Doctor."</p><p> </p><p>"Is that so?" He looked even happier, if that was even possible.</p><p> </p><p>I nodded. "When I was a little kid, I'd catch an episode of Doctor Who, every now and then. I didn't really know what was going on, but I knew I wanted to run away with you and explore the universe."</p><p> </p><p>"Awww," he beamed. "And now, you get to!"</p><p> </p><p>"Yup," I chuckled. I looked into his eyes, and I felt just as helpless as I did when I looked into Rose's. </p><p> </p><p>I must have been starring a bit too hard because his expression shifted to one of confusion. "What?" he asked. "Have I got something on my face?" </p><p> </p><p>I blinked and quickly shook my head. "No! No, it's fine-- Your face-- It's…. Fine." I cleared my throat. "All good."</p><p> </p><p>"What is it, then?"</p><p> </p><p>"We should really go join the others," I tried to change the subject. "Don't wanna keep them waiting!" I tried to go down the stairs, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.</p><p> </p><p>"Angel, what is it?" he asked. Never in a million years, I thought I would hear David Tennant call me Angel, and it made my heart stop for just a second. </p><p> </p><p>I swallowed nervously. "You have a nice face, is all."</p><p> </p><p>"Oh." He seemed not to know how to respond to that. "Thank you."</p><p> </p><p>You're welcome," I replied, just as awkwardly. "And… You can always dye your hair." He seemed even more confused by that. "If you really wanna be ginger, that is."</p><p> </p><p>"Right." He nodded. "Thanks."</p><p> </p><p>"Yep." I cleared my throat. "No problem."</p><p> </p><p>"Is that all?" he asked, and the way his lips stayed parted after he spoke did things to me. I shook my head in response, despite myself. He stood up. "Then what?"</p><p> </p><p>I suddenly felt so sad, when the thought came to me. "Would it make a difference if I told you?" My heart ached as I spoke those words. </p><p> </p><p>"It might," he spoke softly. He was standing so close to me, now, just one step over me. </p><p> </p><p>I gazed into his eyes, and I was down for the count, I was drowning in 'em. "What if it changes things for the worst?" I murmured, not trusting my voice not to break, should I speak any louder.</p><p> </p><p>In a moment that lasted forever, our minds connected, and he saw my innermost feelings. I felt his insides get all twisted up. His hearts broke, and mine broke with it. </p><p> </p><p>"I can't." <em> His </em> voice did crack. "We can't."</p><p> </p><p>"I know," I replied, a single tear rolling down my cheek. </p><p> </p><p>"I won't age," he all but pleaded. </p><p> </p><p>"I know," I repeated. "I know."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Memories and Moonlight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Whoops. Longer chapter than usual.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>I sat on the console room seat as the Doctor placed a metal helmet on my head. It had a bunch of wires coming out the top, connecting it to the Tardis console. Rose was holding my hand, looking tense. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Are you sure?" he asked me for what had to be the hundredth time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm sure," I repeated myself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Is it gonna hurt?" Rose asked him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Probably," he answered, and I felt his worry. Both of them worried. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I've made up my mind." I squeezed her hand. "I don't want my foresight to ruin things." She nodded somewhat hesitantly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Ready?" He moved back to the console. I nodded in reply. "Rose, step back," he instructed. She kissed my forehead before doing as he said. I took a deep breath, and the Doctor lowered a lever. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Tardis reached into my mind, and I saw her walk through my memories. She was a gorgeous brunette in a blue dress, and her smile made me feel safe. In the corridor where my memories of future Doctor Who episodes lay behind many doors, she closed them one by one. As she shut them, they disappeared, as if they had never been there, to begin with. There was no pain. I was at peace, and I was home. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>New New York had been… Well, it hadn't been exactly great, what with the cat nuns growing people to develop cures for every disease. It had been… something. Rose got possessed by Cassandra, the 'last human,' then she'd possessed the Doctor, implied he never masturbated, then she'd possessed me. That sure had been a new experience: new new Doctor and all that. But we ended up creating an entirely new subspecies of humans, and that had made it all worth it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We walked back into the Tardis, as Cassandra died in the arms of her younger self. I leaned against the console with Rose, and the Doctor shut the doors. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Where to now?" he asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Dunno," Rose shrugged. "Where'd you wanna go, Angel?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I hummed thoughtfully. "To the kitchen." They both gave me confused looks. "I'm hungry," I mumbled and headed down one of the hallways. I wasn't sure how I felt. It was just a mix of a bunch of emotions inside me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once in the kitchen, I mindlessly started making myself a sandwich. I could feel that we were in flight, but I paid it no mind. I just made my sandwich and sat at the table to eat it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose joined me after a bit, and she sat directly on the table. "Penny for your thoughts?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. "I dunno… This one just hit different, I guess."</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She put her hand on mine, making me look up. "Wanna talk about it?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I ran my free hand through my hair, sighing. "Not right now…" I shook my head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's okay." She got off the table and sat on an actual chair. "Would you like to go for a swim?" she asked softly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sure." I smiled softly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She returned my smile. "Great. Meet you there." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose was already swimming when I made it to the pool. I stayed by the door and just watched her for a little bit. Whatever funk I had been in, she'd pull me almost all the way out of it with little more than a few words. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You gonna join me, or are you just gonna stand there like a creep?" she teased, snapping me out of my thoughts. The way she smiled, with just the tip of her tongue poking between her teeth, was like sunshine on a rainy day.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Watch out!" I called and ran to the pool, doing a cannonball into the deep end. When I came back to the surface, she was laughing. I couldn't help but laugh with her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose had changed into denim mini-dungarees. "What do you think of this?" she asked the Doctor. "Will it do?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He glanced up at her. "In the late 1970s? You'd be better off in a bin bag. Hold on, listen to this." He put a CD in the Tardis player. "Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Number One in 1979," he beamed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're a punk," she laughed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's good to be a lunatic," he sang along. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I bet," I teased him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's what you are. A big old punk with a bit of rockabilly thrown in!" Rose exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Would you like to see him?" he asked us. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How'd you mean? In concert?" She perked up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What else is a Tardis for?" He grinned. "I can take you to the Battle of Trafalgar, the first anti-gravity Olympics, Caesar crossing the Rubicon," he listed on, "or Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st November 1979. What do you think?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sheffield it is," Rose and I said at the same time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Hold on tight!" he shouted. The Doctor beat the rhythm of the song on the console as we travelled. The Tardis would have rolled her eyes if she had them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Stop!" Rose shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We stopped suddenly, and all got thrown onto the floor, laughing out. We helped each other back up, smiling like children on Christmas morning. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"1979. Hell of a year," the Doctor started. "China invades Vietnam. The Muppet Movie. Love that film. Margaret Thatcher. Urgh." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Skylab falls to Earth, with a little help from me. Nearly took off my thumb." He stepped out of the Tardis. "And I like my thumb. I need my thumb. I'm very attached to..." Rifles were suddenly pointed at our faces and cocked. "My thumb..." he trailed off. We were surrounded by Redcoats. "1879. Same difference." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The officer in charge was atop a black horse. "You will explain your presence. And the nakedness of this girl," he ordered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Are we in Scotland?" the Doctor asked, in a Scottish accent. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The officer looked confused. "How can you be ignorant of that?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, I'm, I'm dazed and confused," the Doctor lied. We've been chasing this, this wee naked child over hill and over dale." He nodded toward Rose. "Isn't that right, ya timorous beastie?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Och, aye!" she agreed. "I've been oot and aboot." I could barely contain my smile. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No, don't do that." The Doctor shook his head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Hoots mon," she kept going, somewhat hesitantly. I coughed to mask my laughter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No, really don't," he insisted. "Really."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Will you identify yourself, sir?" the officer demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon, from the township of Balamory, and this is my friend Graham Angell," the Doctor introduced us. "I have my credentials, if I may." With a nod from the officer, he pulled out his psychic paper and showed it to the armed men. "As you can see, a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>An upper-class English accent came from the nearby carriage. "Let them approach."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The officer glanced back, his gun still trained on us. "I don't think that's wise, ma'am."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Let them approach," the voice insisted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You will approach the carriage, and show all due deference," the man warned us." We nodded, the Doctor giving him a mock salute with two fingers, and made our way over. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A footman opened the door, revealing a regal-looking woman. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Rose, Graham, might I introduce her Majesty, Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith," the Doctor said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I blinked a couple of times, then bowed somewhat awkwardly. "Graham Angell, Ma'am. It's an honour to meet you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Rose Tyler, Ma'am." Rose curtsied. "And my apologies for being so naked," she laughed nervously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me," the Queen dismissed her concerns. "But you, Doctor. Show me these credentials." He handed her the psychic paper. "Why didn't you say so immediately?" she exclaimed. "It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my Protector." She handed it back to him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Does it?" He quickly checked it. "Yes, it does. Good. Good." He nodded. "Then let me ask - why is Your Majesty travelling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"A tree on the line," she replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"An accident?" he asked, frowning. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland," she stated. "Everything around me tends to be planned."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"An assassination attempt?" His frown deepened.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What, seriously?" Rose seemed shocked. "There's people out to kill you?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun," the Queen replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence, " the officer in charge explained. "We've sent word ahead. He'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"This Doctor, his friend and his timorous beastie will come with us."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, Ma'am. We'd better get moving - it's almost nightfall."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these parts. Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think." She smiled. "Drive on!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We walked behind the carriage, with the soldiers. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's funny, though, because you say assassination, and you just think of Kennedy and stuff," Rose said. "Not her."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah..." I hummed in agreement.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"1879? She's had, oh," the Doctor thought about it, "six attempts on her life? And I'll tell you something else. We just met Queen Victoria!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I know!" Rose exclaimed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Right??" I grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What a laugh!" The Doctor grinned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She was just sitting there." Rose mimicked the Queen's pose. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Like a stamp," the Doctor agreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I want her to say, 'we are not amused,'" she told us. "I bet you five quid I can make her say it."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, if I gambled on that, it'd be an abuse of my privileges of traveller in time," he said all seriously. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, I'm in," I chimed in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Ten quid?" she asked, leaning in closer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Done," he agreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In the courtyard of Torchwood Estate, the man I assumed was Sir Robert came to greet Queen Victoria. There were some servants with him. "Your Majesty." He bowed his head. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> "Sir Robert. My apologies for the emergency." The Queen stepped out of her carriage. "And how is Lady Isobel?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's indisposed, I'm afraid," he answered. I could feel he was concerned. "She's gone to Edinburgh for the season. And she's taken the cook with her. The kitchens are barely stocked. I wouldn't blame Your Majesty if you wanted to ride on."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, not at all." The Queen waved a hand dismissively. "I've had quite enough carriage exercise. And this is charming, if rustic." She looked around. "It's my first visit to this house. My late husband spoke of it often. The Torchwood Estate. Now, shall we go inside? And please excuse the naked girl." She motioned to Rose. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sorry." Rose smiled sheepishly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She's a feral child. We bought her for sixpence in old London Town," the Doctor explained. "It's was her or the Elephant Man, so..."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Thinks he's funny, but I'm so not amused. What do you think, Ma'am?" she asked the Queen.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It hardly matters," she replied. "Shall we proceed?" She was led inside. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So close," Rose muttered. I shook my head, smiling. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Makerson and Ramsey, you will escort the property," the officer in charge, Captain Reynolds, instructed his men. "Hurry up."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, sir." They took a small locked box from the carriage and carried it into the house.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So what's in there, then?" I asked, curious. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Property of the Crown. You will dismiss any further thoughts, sir." Reynolds look left no room for argument. "The rest of you go to the rear of the house. Assume your designated positions."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You heard the orders. Positions," one soldier said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another one nodded. "Sir."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We walked into an observatory, where a massive bronze telescope stood. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"This, I take it, is the famous Endeavour." The Queen looked at it in admiration. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All my father's work," Sir Robert explained. "Built by hand in his final years. Became something of an obsession. He spent his money on this rather than caring for the house or himself."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I wish I'd met him. I like him." The Doctor grinned and walked over to the telescope, admiring it. "That thing's beautiful. Can I?" He motioned to it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sir Robert nodded. "Help yourself."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I rushed over to get a better look, Rose in tow. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What did he model it on?" The Doctor looked into the eyepiece. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I know nothing about it," Sir Robert admitted. "To be honest, most of us thought him a little, shall we say, eccentric. I wish now I'd spent more time with him and listened to his stories." There was that concern again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> "It's a bit rubbish. How many prisms has it got?" The Doctor glanced back at Robert. "Way too many. The magnification's gone right over the top. That's stupid kind of-- He looked at Rose and me and murmured. "Am I being rude again?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yep," we answered at the same time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But it's pretty!" The Doctor looked at Robert apologetically. "It's very pretty."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And the imagination of it should be applauded," the Queen added. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Mmm. Thought you might disapprove, Your Majesty," Rose pretended to think aloud. "Stargazing. Isn't that a bit fanciful? You could easily not be amused or something? No?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looked at Rose like a mother at her daughter. "This device surveys the infinite work of God. What could be finer? Sir Robert's father was an example to us all," she stated. "A polymath, steeped in astronomy and sciences, yet equally well versed in folklore and fairytales."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Stars and magic." The Doctor looked so pleased. "I like him more and more."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Same." I smiled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, my late husband enjoyed his company," she told us. "Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe Coburg."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's Bavaria," the Doctor clarified in a whisper. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported," she told Sir Robert. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So, what's this wolf, then?" the Doctor asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's just a story." Robert shook his head, dismissively. I noticed the glance he shot at one of his servants. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Then tell it," the Doctor pressed him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's said that--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Excuse me, sir," said servant interrupted. "Perhaps her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Of course." Robert nodded quickly. "Yes, of course."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And then supper. And could we find some clothes for Miss Tyler?" the Queen asked. "I'm tired of nakedness."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's not amusing, is it?" Rose insisted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Queen barely spared her a look. "Sir Robert, your wife must have left some clothes. See to it. We shall dine at seven, and talk some more of this wolf," she ordered. "After all, there is a full moon tonight."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"So there is, Ma'am." Robert's concert was more and more apparent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Your companion begs an apology, Doctor, Mister Angell," the servant from earlier came in to tell us. "Her clothing has somewhat delayed her." At that moment, I was glad to have gone for jeans and a button-up shirt. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, that's all right," the Doctor said in his lovely Scottish accent. "Save her a wee bit of ham."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The feral child could probably eat it raw," the Queen joked, and I chuckled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Captain Reynolds, one of her guards, laughed out loudly. "Very wise, Ma'am. Very witty."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Slightly witty, perhaps," she chided him. "I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited. I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am." The poor guy looked a bit like a kicked puppy. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Besides, we're all waiting on Sir Robert," the Doctor changed the subject. "Come, sir. You promised us a tale of nightmares."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, please," I added, perking up a little. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Indeed," her Majesty agreed. "Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You miss him," I said softly, feeling it from deep in her heart.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her expression softened. "Very much. Oh, completely," she replied. "And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent, and we must wait." Her expression betrayed her grief for but a moment. "Come. Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The story goes back three hundred years," Sir Robert started. "Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and devoured."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves," the Captain snorted. "Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But sometimes a child goes missing," Sir Robert's tone grew sombre. "Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Are there descriptions of the creature?" the Doctor asked him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, yes, Doctor." Robert nodded. "Drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"A werewolf?" The Doctor was delighted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it was fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose. I should have listened," Robert explained. "His work was hindered. He made enemies. There's a monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The servant looked up at the moon through the window and started chanting. "Lupus Deus Est." I knew enough Latin to know we were in big trouble. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Perhaps they thought his work ungodly," the Queen offered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's what I thought." Robert nodded. "But now I wonder. What if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet? What if they turned from God and worshipped the wolf?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor caught one ver quickly. "And what if they were with us right now?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What is the meaning of this?" the Queen demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Captain Reynolds shot up and took out his pistol. "Explain yourself, Sir Robert!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What's happening?" the Queen asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Robert begged, "they've got my wife."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Rose!" the Doctor shouted. Where's Rose? Where is she? Sir Robert, Angel, come on!" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We ran out of the room and to the cellar. The two men kicked their way in just as Rose and several other people broke the chain's end free of the wall. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Where the hell have you been?" Rose shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, that's beautiful," the Doctor breathed out when he saw the creature. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on, go. Get out!" Robert shouted, getting all the prisoners out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The werewolf broke out of its crate, and people screamed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" the Doctor shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on." Rose helped people out, and I did the same. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor stayed in the cellar a bit longer before running out and locking the door with the sonic screwdriver. The werewolf's howl echoed through the house.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In the gun room, the Steward handed out the contents of the gun cabinet. "Arms, and you five. Ready, everyone?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Take the girls," Robert told who I assumed was his wife. "Get them out through the kitchen."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can't leave you," she protested. "What will you do?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I must defend her Majesty," he replied. "Now, don't think of me, just go." I turned around as they kissed, giving them some privacy. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All of you, at my side. Come on!" Lady Isobel left with all the maidservants. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor was removing Rose's shackles with the sonic screwdriver. "It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths," he explained. "Did it say what it wanted?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The Queen, the Crown, the throne - you name it," she answered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a crash of something bursting through a wooden door. The Doctor went out to investigate and quickly ran back, grabbing Rose and me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Fire! Fire!" the Steward ordered. I covered my ears as the men pumped the werewolf full of bullets. The creature retreated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"All right, you men. We should retreat upstairs," the Doctor instructed. "Come with me."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'll not retreat," the Steward refused. "The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I knew the werewolf wasn't dead. "Listen to him," I screamed. "Come upstairs!" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sir, I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." The Steward stepped into the corridor, then looked back. "It must have crawled away to die." He was hoisted up to the ceiling, and we heard sounds of snarling and meat ripping. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor insisted, and everyone ran. I just stood there in shock. I felt the Steward be ripped apart, and the werewolf delighting in its kill. The Doctor had to pull me upstairs. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Your Majesty? Your Majesty!" Sir Robert called. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sir Robert? What's happening?" the Queen asked as she was coming down the stairs above us. "I heard such terrible noises."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Your Majesty, we've got to get out," Robert informed her. "But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Captain Reynolds disposed of him," she replied. Something told me she was lying, but I stayed quiet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut," the Doctor announced. "Pardon me, Your Majesty. You'll have to leg it out of a window."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We rushed into the nearest room, and Robert walked over to the window. "Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist Her Majesty's egress."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh." She nodded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" the Doctor pressed. Robert opened the window, and the monks outside opened fire. We all ducked out of the way. "I reckon the monkey boys want us to stay inside," the Doctor mused.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Ya think?" I snapped at him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Do they know who I am??" the Queen asked, all offended. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, that's why they want you," Rose answered. "The wolf's lined you up for a... a biting."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Stop this talk," the Queen chided. "There can't be an actual wolf."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The wolf howled, and we ran back into the corridor.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What do we do?" Rose asked</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"We run," the Doctor replied. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's it?" I looked at him, panicked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Either of you got any silver bullets?" he sassed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose motioned to her pockets. "Not on me, no!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"There we are then, we run." He turned to the Queen. "Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigourous jog. Good for the health. Come on!2</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We desperately ran up the staircase, the werewolf smashing its way out of the floor bellow and following us.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on! Come on!" the Doctor shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The werewolf was nearly upon us when Reynolds turned and shot it. It retreated. "I'll take this position and hold it," he told us. "You keep moving, for God's sake! Your Majesty, I went to look for the property, and it was taken. The chest was empty."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I have it. It's safe," she assured him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Captain nodded. "Then remove yourself, Ma'am." He cocked his pistol. "Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the Crown."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Bullets can't stop it!" I screamed at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They'll buy you time," he insisted. "Now, run!" "Reynolds emptied his revolver at the werewolf before it pounced and ripped him apart.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Rose!" The Doctor dragged her into a room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Barricade the door," Robert ordered. All of us but the Queen did so. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Wait a minute. Shush, shush, wait a minute. "It's stopped." The Doctor put his ear against the door. "It's gone," he said quietly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Listen," Rose spoke up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were footsteps and growls from outside the walls as the beast walked around the room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Is this the only door?" the Doctor whispered. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes," Robert replied. "No!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We quickly rushed to barricade the other door. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Shush." I put a finger to my lips, and we listened as the noises continued outside the walls. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't understand. What's stopping it?" Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Something inside this room." The Doctor started looking around. "What is it? Why can't it get in?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'll tell you what, though." Rose smiled at the Doctor and me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What?" He turned to face her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Werewolf," she chuckled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I know," he laughed with her and pulled the two of us into a hug. "You all right?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm okay, yeah." She nodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Still in one piece," I reassured him, though I knew it wasn't exactly what he had meant. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What are you getting from it, Angel?" he asked me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's hard to tell..." I shook my head. "The house is full of terror... But the wolf..." I furrowed my brow, struggling to find the right words. "It's not angry or hungry. It's got this... pure drive, almost a need to fulfill a mission or... or a command." I sighed. "It's weird, in its mind." The Doctor rubbed my shoulder. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'm sorry, Ma'am," Sir Robert chimed in, and we all looked at him. "It's all my fault. I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice." He laughed mirthlessly. "Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, they were bald, athletic. Your wife's away, I just thought you were happy." The Doctor shrugged. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'll tell you what, though, Ma'am," Rose told her Majesty. "I bet you're not amused now."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Do you think this is funny?" No, she was not. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No, Ma'am." Rose shook her head. "I'm sorry."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What, exactly, I pray tell me, someone, please. What exactly is that creature?" the Queen demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You'd call it a werewolf," the Doctor answered. "but technically it's a more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And should I trust you, sir? You who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accent?" Damn, I hadn't even noticed his Scottish accent was gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh right, sorry, that's-"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I'll not have it. No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Mistletoe." The Doctor pointed out the carving on the wooden door. "Sir Robert, did your father put that there?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I don't know." Robert shook his head. "I suppose."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"On the other door, too," the Doctor noted. "No, a carving wouldn't be enough. I wonder." He licked the woodwork.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I can't take you anywhere," I teased him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He shot me a wink. "Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood like a varnish. How clever was your dad? I love him!" He exclaimed. "Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And the wolf's allergic to it?" Rose asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, it thinks it is," he explained. "The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor," Robert reminded us. "And we still don't possess an actual weapon."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Being rude again," Rose pointed out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good. I meant that one," the Doctor scoffed. "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have." He tossed some books to Rose and me. "Arm yourself."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Our voices kept overlapping as we kept reading suggestions out loud. Until the Doctor stepped down from his perch. "Look what your old dad found. Something fell to Earth." He placed a book down on the table. There was an illustration of a shooting star falling to Earth. Everyone gathered around the table.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"A spaceship?" Rose asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Robert shook his head. "A shooting star." He started reading. "In the year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit." He looked up at us. "That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the monastery."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But that's over three hundred years ago." Rose frowned. "What's it been waiting for?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good question." I leaned in closer to the book like it could tell me. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Maybe just a single cell survived," the Doctor offered. "Adapting slowly down the generations, it survived through the humans, host after host after host."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But why does it want the throne?" Robert asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"That's what it wants. It said so," Rose replied. "The, the Empire of the Wolf."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Imagine it." The Doctor leaned back against the table. "The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam, leaving history devastated in its wake."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Sir Robert," the Queen spoke up. "If I am to die here--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Don't say that, Your Majesty," Sir Robert interrupted her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me," she stated simply. "But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables," the Doctor told her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Thank you for your opinion, but there is nothing more valuable than this." She pulled the finest white fist-sized diamond out of her little bag. We all looked at it in awe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Is that the Koh-I-Noor?" Rose walked closer to the Queen.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, yes." The Doctor put his glasses on. "The greatest diamond in the world."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true," the Queen mused. "It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough. Can I?" The Doctor held out his hand, and the Queen reluctantly handed it to him. Rose and I moved in closer as he examined it. "That is so beautiful."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"How much is it worth?" I asked, almost reverently. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They say the wages of the entire planet for a whole week." The Doctor smiled. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good job my mum's not here," Rose chuckled. "She'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that thing."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"And she'd win," the Doctor agreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Where </span>
  <em>is</em>
  <span> the wolf?" Robert reminded us of the issue at hand. "I don't trust this silence."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Why do you travel with it?" the Doctor asked the Queen.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"My annual pilgrimage," she explained. "I'm taking it to Helier and Carew, the Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh, but it's perfect." Rose looked almost sad. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Queen smiled softly. "My late husband never thought so."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Now, there's a fact. Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-I-Noor cut down," the Doctor told us. "It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"He always said the shine was not quite right," the Queen hummed. But he died with it still unfinished."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Unfinished... Oh, yes!" The Doctor threw the stone back to the Queen, who caught it just in time. "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research," he pointed at Robert, "and your husband, Ma'am, he came here, and he sought the perfect diamond. Hold on, hold on." The Doctor held his head, and we watched him in both awe and confusion. "All these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected. Oh, my head, my head. What if this house, it's a trap for you. Is that right, Ma'am?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Obviously," she agreed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"At least, that's what the wolf intended," he said. "But, what if there's a trap inside the trap?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh!" I exclaimed, finally catching up with his train of thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Explain yourself, Doctor," the Queen demanded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories. They dared to imagine all this was true, and they planned against it, laying the real trap not for you but for the wolf," the Doctor explained. Plaster dust fell from the ceiling, and we all looked up at the dome's skylight. "That wolf there..." The glass in the skylight started cracking. "Out! Out! Out!"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We ran out of the library as the werewolf fell into the room, and the Doctor shut the mistletoe door in its face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Your Majesty!" Robert screamed as we ran. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Get to the observatory!" the Doctor ordered. The werewolf escaped the library and caught up with us. Rose screamed as it was about to attack her, then a pan of liquid was thrown over the beast. It retreated, screaming in pain. "Good shot," the Doctor complimented the women who had thrown the pan. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It was mistletoe," one of them explained. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Isobel!" Robert and his wife kissed. "Now, get back downstairs."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Keep yourself safe," she told him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He nodded. "Now go."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Girls, come with me. Down the back stairs, back to the kitchens. Quickly!" Lady Isobel and the women retreated. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Come on!" The Doctor started running again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The observatory's this way." Robert led the way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We carried on up the stairs as the werewolf recovered, and rushed into the observatory. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> "No mistletoe in these doors because your father wanted the wolf to get inside. I just need time. Is there any way of barricading this?" the Doctor asked Robert. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Just do your work, and I'll defend it," Robert told him solemnly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"If we could bind them shut with rope or something," the Doctor kept going. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I said I'd find you time, Sir," Robert insisted. "Now get inside."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Good man," the Doctor said after he understood. He shut the observatory doors and walked over to the Queen. "Your Majesty, the diamond."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"For what purpose?" she questioned.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"The purpose it was designed for," he answered, and she handed the diamond over. "Rose, Angel." He took us to the controls and started raising the telescope up. "Lift it. Come on." We did as he said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Is this the right time for stargazing?" Rose's voice strained as she pushed the wheel.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, it is," the Doctor groaned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You said this thing doesn't work," she reminded him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It doesn't work as a telescope because that's not what it is. It's a light chamber," he explained. "It magnifies the light rays like a weapon. We've just got to power it up."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It won't work. There's no electricity," she protested. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Moonlight," I grunted out, using all my strength to lift the thing up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"But the wolf needs moonlight. It's made by moonlight," she countered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"You're seventy percent water, but you can still drown. Come on! Come on!" he shouted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The moon shone down into the telescope, its light magnified by it. The werewolf broke in and went for Queen Victoria, who screamed in terror. The Doctor slid the diamond over to where the light hit the floor, and it refracted upwards, catching the werewolf in its beam and lifting it up off the floor. The wolf turned back into a young man, hanging as if crucified in mid-air.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Make it brighter. Let me go," the young man requested. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor adjusted the magnification on the eyepiece. The man turned back into a wolf shape, howled and vanished into the moonlight. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Queen looked at something on her wrist, and the Doctor rushed over to her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Your Majesty? Did it bite you?" he asked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"No, it's, it's a cut, that's all," she tried to dismiss his concerns. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"If that thing bit you--"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It was a splinter of wood when the door came apart. It's nothing." She hid her wrist from him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Let me see," he insisted gently.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It is nothing."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In the morning, in the household's presence, the Doctor, Rose and I knelt before Queen Victoria. She was armed with a sword. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Doctor of Tardis." She tapped each of his shoulders with the blunt plane of the blade. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Dame Rose of the Powell Estate." She did the same to Rose. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Graham of the Dawn. You may stand." We did as instructed, huge smiles on our faces. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Many thanks, Ma'am," the Doctor said. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Thanks. They're never going to believe this back home," Rose laughed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes, thank you," I added. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving no message from the great beyond. I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life," the Doctor told her. "He's protecting you even now, Ma'am, from beyond the grave."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Indeed." The Queen nodded and straightened up. "Then you may think on this also. That I am not amused."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Yes!" Rose exclaimed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Not remotely amused," the Queen insisted. "And henceforth, I banish you."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Doctor's face dropped. "I'm sorry?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I have rewarded you, Sir Doctor, and now you are exiled from this empire, never to return," she announced. "I don't know what you are, the two of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars and magic and think it fun. But your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death, and I will not allow it. You will leave these shores, and you will reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so far from all that is good, and how much longer you may survive this terrible life," she ordered. "Now leave my world and never return."</span>
</p>
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